The Sentinel
by A Nerdy Kat
Summary: "Out of the Shadows and Into the Light" was HYDRA's call to arms, but HYDRA agents weren't the only ones who came out of the shadows. One woman who protects the powerless has stood ever-watchful and now must act to save everyone she has ever loved.
1. The Hacker and the Hitter

Author's Note: The Sentinels within the Marvel Universe are machines designed to hunt down and kill mutants or anyone who would help mutants. They're inescapable and extremely hard to beat. I was long ago inspired by a line from Days of Futures Past that mentioned that program had been modeled after one mutant. While they clearly meant something else, the thought occurred to me, what if there was a mutant who had the power to track virtually anyone. This is the result of that idea.

Chapter 1

(Tags for 2x01 Shadows)

Ellie balanced on the beam of the warehouse, staring at the people below. They were searching for something. It didn't belong to them. She had planned to take away from all parties involved, but SHIELD had arrived early. A Diviner. One of the missing few, in fact. Her client had informed her of them in case she ever ran across one so that she would take it out of play. It was too dangerous not to, especially now.

A Diviner. Even Ellie wasn't immune to those things, or so Gordon told her. Ellie wasn't about to risk it. She heard the crack of wood, even from her height. They had found the box. She need to stop them now. She let the data stream slide over her vision for a few seconds and found the information she was searching for. HYDRA was only two minutes out. She grabbed a rope out of her pack, attached it to the beam, and slid down next to them just as they were pulling the case out of the box.

"Don't take it out of there," she commanded. They all froze and turned to her. She strode forward and pulled it from their reach. "You touch it, and you die."

"I'm sorry?" the man on her left practically growled. His body tensed and he reached for his gun.

Ellie shifted her weight, and winced at her poor choice of words. She took a deep breath "I didn't mean it like that. My intel says that that item will kill you if you touch it. Look, HYDRA's right behind me, you should probably get going."

"And who the hell are you?"

"Someone who doesn't want HYDRA to get their hands on it," Ellie said shortly. She felt antsy. This was taking too long to explain. If she didn't think they would all be killed, she would just knock them all out. "Look,I've been an ally of your Director's for a long time. You should trust me."

"If you think we're going to let you leave with that, you're insane," one of the women said sharply.

"If you think that you're anywhere near a match for me, than you're kidding yourself," Ellie smirked as she sized the woman up.

"Ellie?" asked a shocked voice. Ellie did a double-take at the source of the voice. When had Skye joined SHIELD?

Ellie raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Oh, this is going to take some explaining," she said, moving in for a hug. Just then, gunfire exploded around them and Skye instinctively ducked and grabbed her gun at the same time. Ellie lunged to cover Skye but stopped when she saw her reaction. That was new. She wondered if the younger woman had stopped saying 'bang' when she shot a gun.

Instead of protecting Skye, Ellie grabbed the case that the Diviner was in. "You can't just take it. You'd be stealing SHIELD property," the same woman had been previously spoken up said in annoyance.

Ellie shook her head. "Wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last," she quipped. She saw the woman change her stance, prepared to fight for it and sighed. "But let's do this in the interest of not dying. I'll come with you and explain everything to the Director and we'll quibble over all of this later."

The woman stared at her a moment before relaxing her stance against Ellie. "Agreed," she said, grabbing her weapon. Ellie weighed her options and looked at the man to her left. "Hold this," she said, shoving it in the man's arms. "Just promise me you won't open it."

The man nodded, still looking at her in confusion. A group of agents started to peel off, though Skye hesitated. "Agent, you have your orders," another woman barked as she non-verbally commanded Skye to follow her. "They can hold HYDRA off."

Ellie nodded to Skye to prompt her to leave and follow orders. Skye nodded with a very small smile. Ellie heard the footsteps of the soldiers and turned to the woman who had first addressed her. "Allow me, Agent..."

"Hartley. Izzie Hartley,"

"Nice to meet you." She returned with a kind smile. She then pulled out her trademark sai, a gift from a friend, and twirled them in her hands with a cruel grin. Time to get to business. She moved quickly, knowing she was nearly a blur to her foes. Diving into the onslaught, she dodged three bullets in quick succession before skewering two of her enemy. She delivered a roundhouse kick to the man behind her and threw a sai at an agent raising a gun at the SHIELD group. She used the man next to her as leverage as she flipped in the air and landed on another's shoulders, his head between her legs. With a twist, he was on the ground groaning. She punched the man she had used as leverage, first in the solar plexus, then in the groin while slicing her next attacker's across the chest. Another raised a gun to her head and she paused.

"On your knees," the man cursed.

"You want to know the difference between you and me?" Ellie asked the man without looking at him. It distracted the man enough that she was able to disarm him and immediately shoot him in the head. She turned to the last three HYDRA soldiers who looked at her in terror and immediately dropped their weapons. She produced three zip ties from her pocket and tied all three to separate poles in the warehouse, too far away for any one soldier to help the others out. For good measure, she broke each soldier's right foot.

When the first wave had been taken care of, she turned around and saw Izzie and the man staring at her. "It won't be long before they send in the second wave," Ellie said, efficiently packing away her sai. It seemed to pull Hartley back into the present moment.

"Jesus," cursed an Englishman that Ellie now just noticed.

"Come on! Let's go, Idaho. You drive," Hartley snapped to the man who was still staring at Ellie.

They raced through the streets. They could actually make it. They might actually make it. They could escape HYDRA and the government. Ellie could make sure that the weapon was secure. Just as she felt a tiny bit of hope, a man stepped into their lane and hit them. Like a deer on a highway. In the millisecond before physics took over, Ellie was shocked as that fact registered. She saw the man's skin didn't look like skin. It looked metallic. Almost like how Piotr's did when he took on his Colossus form. The next second, the car flipped and Ellie hit her head against the window.

She watched everything happen in slow motion as the data briefly filled her vision. She saw every phone conversation occurring. The data from the coms, police radios, the coms from HYDRA agents. Zeros and ones filling up her mind until she locked down her control and her vision cleared. It was then that she saw that the Diviner's case had been thrown clear of the car.

She tried her hardest to get out of the car, but the man with the changing skin grabbed the case and ran off. Ellie let out a scream of frustration as she repositioned her body to kick out the door of the SUV. Dragging Izzie out of the car, she noted the Englishman getting out himself. Idaho hadn't moved from behind the wheel. She passed off a dazed Agent Hartley then bolted over to Idaho. She felt for a pulse and closed her eyes. Another life in her book. Another life that she owed the universe. She felt anger and rage fill her, but stamped it down. There was time for the rage later. Dragging the body out of the car, she carried Idaho over to where the other two stood.

The Englishman was practically carrying Izzie. His face crumpled as he watched Ellie, realizing that his friend was dead. Ellie heard the sirens from far off. She had to get them out of there. She looked over the car and while it was totalled, the engine would survive another few miles. They had to hurry. She deftly tipped the car so that it was upright. The doors were smashed in and one was missing, but it would do. HYDRA was coming. What was worse: the Feds were coming. The world was closing in on them. "Get in," she demanded of the others. Hunter, thankfully, didn't argue. Izzie bit back a scream as she clutched her leg. Ellie ran to put Idaho's body in the trunk. She let the data in again and saw that both HYDRA and the government were moments away.

She hopped in the driver's seat and turned on the car. The engine roared to life. She didn't pause to check that Hunter and Izzie were secure in the backseat before she floored it.

"Could you please remember that we're not wearing seatbelts and there's no door back here?" Hunter asked dryly as Ellie took the off-ramp at high speed. A glance in the rear-view mirror revealed a very pale looking Hartley. The Englishman himself actually looked a little green. Despite their reaction, she didn't slow down until she got to the side streets and found what she was looking for - a sedan in good condition without an alarm. She parked behind it.

"Get out," she said, hopping out via the driver's side window herself before going over to the car, unlocking the doors, and popping the trunk. She noted that the Englishman and Izzie hadn't moved when she returned to retrieve Idaho's body. "Come on, unless you want to spend time in Federal Prison," she snapped. She wanted to get all of this over with. She wasn't used to having extra people around in the field. Extra people were a liability.

They finally got out and Ellie helped the Englishman place Izzie on the backseat. Ellie got the car started and Lance insisted on driving. Ellie conceded and got in the passenger seat.

"Who are you?" Lance asked shortly. His voice was tight and his eyes stared at her curiously.

"I could ask you the same thing," Ellie said calmly.

Rage filled the man's face. "I'm Lance Hunter. I work for SHIELD. Now who the bloody hell are you?" He demanded. Every inch of the man was filled up with anger, fear, and grief.

Ellie considered her answer, then landed on the closest answer to the truth that she had. "My friends call me Ellie, but more people know me as the Sentinel." Lance looked over at her with wide eyes. With his concentration on her, the car started to drift into the next lane. "Watch the road!" Ellie shouted. Lance snapped back to watching the road, but continued to repeatedly glance back at her in stunned silence,

"You're the Sentinel?" Hartley asked tightly. Ellie glanced back at the agent and winced as she saw what was clearly a broken femur. "You know, most of us don't even believe in myths like the Sentinel."

"That's how I liked it," Ellie said, shoving her dislocated shoulder back into place and flexing her hand as she felt some of the smaller bones start to heal. "With HYDRA coming out of the shadows, things have changed."

"You sound like you have history," Izzie said, curiosity laced in her voice.

"Something like that," Ellie growled. "I have a score to settle with them." Her life and her family had been gone before she ever really had a chance to have them. HYDRA would pay for that ten-fold.

"That makes two of us," gritted out Hartley. Ellie glanced back again. The pain on Hartley's face wasn't just from her leg. "Lance, how are we doing?"

"We got another ten minutes," Hunter said, weaving through traffic. Ellie took a moment to check the data stream. By all accounts, they had shaken HYDRA and the Feds for the time being.

"Once you guys get Izzie help, I'll go ditch the car," Ellie offered. Hunter nodded, glancing back at Izzie, who looked incredulous.

He glanced over at Ellie as he changed lanes. "We've met before," Hunter said suddenly, "I don't know if you remember." His voice was low and serious.

Memories flitted across her brain as recognition set in. "Nairobi, '02," Ellie said with a smile. "You were just a very green SAS agent back then."

"You looked more like a fifteen-year-old than an experienced spy. To be honest, you don't look that different," he observed suspiciously.

"Guess I'm just lucky," Ellie said, shrugging her shoulders evasively. "Good genes."

They settled into silence again until they arrived in front of an old building a few minutes later. Hunter helped Hartley out of the car and Ellie reverently laid Idaho down on the ground. It was a shame. He had seemed like a good sort. Hunter gave Ellie a look. "You sure you got this?"

Ellie very quickly hopped into the driver's seat. "It's not the first time I've ever ditched a car," she said. "I'll be back in an hour. I'm sure the Director will have a thing or two to say to me. Remind him that he owes me beer."

An hour later, she entered the base with stealth and ease. Most of the security systems there were extremely out of date and it was simple for someone with her training to avoid them. She had rolled her eyes at the laser grid in the vents and avoided them with practiced ease. Once she spotted her target, she dropped down beside them and jumped on top of them. Her target let out a scream and Ellie dismounted. "Miss me?" she asked Skye with a broad grin.

Skye grinned in surprise and the two embraced. "What are you doing here?" Skye asked in shock. "I thought that we'd seen the last of you at that base."

"My pseudo-anarchist little sister joins forces with a major player in the spy world and you didn't think I would come back to grill her on what the hell she's thinking?" Ellie teased.

Skye blushed. "I got caught," she said noncommittally with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Since when do you get caught when you don't want to, little Miss I-Made-The-NSA-Director-Cry-Like-A-Girl?" Ellie questioned, furrowing her brow and placing hands on her hips

Skye looked at her with watery eyes and Ellie instantly knew what this was about. She raised her eyebrows as Skye sighed. "I've been looking for them. I know that family is what you make it, but I have so many questions." Ellie was reminded of the vulnerable girl that she had met almost a decade ago with the way Skye looked at her.

Ellie put a hand on Skye's shoulder. "Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I understand." She thought about her own search for her family. Not wanting to think about that, she suddenly placed Skye in a light headlock and watched her baby sister struggle to try and get out of it as she squealed her objection. "What I don't understand is how you don't call me," Ellie said in a teasing tone, though her sentiment was serious. Without looking, she could feel the change in the air as another body entered the room. "You can put down your gun, Agent. I'm not gonna hurt my little sister."

It was then that she released the headlock and glanced over. The lithe, Asian woman raised an eyebrow, but lowered her weapon at Skye's nod. "The Director said he'd want to speak with you when you arrived," the agent said.

Ellie nodded as she hugged Skye tightly. She was so thankful that Skye had made it through the crap that had just gone down. "Good. Nick owes me beer."

"I'm not sure what rock you've been living under, but Director Fury's dead," the Agent said, her voice tight and just a hint of the lie under a layer of stone-cold monotone.

"Yeah?" Ellie smiled. "That's funny, because the guy I met in Florence two weeks ago did a dead on impression of him. We, however, have never been introduced."

The agent said nothing for a moment. "Melinda May," she conceded.

Ellie recognized the name, but decided not to comment. "I'm Ellie," Ellie greeted with a nod. "But being Skye's SO, I'm guessing you already know that. She's learned a lot, from what I can tell."

"She has a lot more to learn," May said, but Ellie proudly noted the pleased look that May gave Skye. Her baby sister was nothing if not a quick study.

"Don't we all," Ellie breathed, looking at Skye with sisterly pride. Skye rolled her eyes and moved to trip her sister.

"So, how do you know Fury?" Melinda asked, a note of curiosity in her voice as her eyes quickly glanced at Ellie. Skye snorted and Ellie glared at her. When asked, Skye often said that Ellie knew everyone in the spy game. It wasn't true, but Ellie certainly knew a lot of people in the spy business. It was out of the game that she knew virtually no one. Skye had been one of the few people she knew outside of that world, and now she had been sucked in too.

Ellie shrugged her shoulders. "Just to exchange information. I give him intel, he keeps me off SHIELD's radar. Or he kept me off of it. He didn't exactly tell me he wasn't Director any more."

"Technically, he still is," came a familiar voice. Ellie was so shocked by Phil Coulson standing in a doorway, it took her a full two seconds before she hauled off and punched him. Melinda reached for a weapon, a fire extinguisher on the wall, but Coulson held up a hand as he staggered, then righted himself. "Can I ask what that was for?" he asked after getting his bearings. She saw others, including Hunter, gathering around other doorways.

"Clint tried to eat his gun," Ellie said bluntly, trying to hide the pain of the events after New York. Despite herself, she felt tears slip down her face. Post-New York, the Avengers had all gone their separate ways to lick their wounds. Ellie and Skye had joined Clint and Natasha at the Tower since Tony had extended an offer of housing the newly-formed team. From what Ellie witnessed with Clint and Natasha, as well as from the air vents, none of the Avengers coped with losing Phil Coulson too well.

Coulson's face changed to one of shock and his own pain. Ellie knew that he had been Clint's SO since Clint had entered SHIELD and that the man deeply cared for the archer. "He damn near succeeded, too," she continued thickly. "It took both me and Tasha to wrestle it away from him. He blames himself of your death and refused to return to SHIELD because he's got it in his head that he should have been able to stop Loki before he killed you. Tasha's trying to hold it together, but aside from Clint, you were the first person to believe in her. The others- How could you not tell them that you were still alive?"

Coulson actually had the decency to look ashamed. "It was protocol," he said half-heartedly.

"Bullshit. The Phil Coulson I knew didn't give a damn about protocol when it came to the people he cared about. Do you really need to be reminded of Tokyo?"

"It was to protect them," Coulson said with more conviction.

"We can protect ourselves better than you can these days," Ellie said coolly as she dismissively flicked her eyes over the space. Coulson looked unimpressed by Ellie's attitude, though Ellie could care less. She turned to Skye. "Speaking of Tasha, she called me just yesterday," she said, maintaining her cool tone and disappointed demeanor. "Apparently _someone_ isn't returning her calls. She's gonna be pissed you never told her about... all of this."

Everyone stared at her. "You know Natasha Romanov?" Hunter asked Skye, shocked.

Skye shrugged, trying to downplay the fact that she knew an Avenger. "She's a friend of Ellie's. Sometimes we happened to occupy the same space at the same time."

"She taught Tasha how to hack," Ellie said with pride. "She's like the baby sister of our little family-less clan. We try to all get together a few times a year, mostly around Thanksgiving and Christmas. We try to keep it hush-hush though. Most of the other Avengers don't even know. We had to dress her like one of those sweaty cosplayers after New York, just so that we could sneak her into the tower."

Everyone was staring at Skye.

Skye looked mad at her, but Ellie just gave Skye a trademark grin. "So, Director Coulson, I hear you have some questions for me in regards to the _object_ that you were trying to obtain."

"The Koenigs are going to want to ask you some questions before we give you a lanyard," Coulson noted, indicating that she should follow him. They left Skye behind to deal with the group of people now crowded around her in shock at the news that Skye had been _inside_ Avengers Tower and hadn't said anything. Ellie grinned. Skye was so going to get her back for this one.

Coulson led her into a room with a single chair in it and indicated that she should sit down.

"If this is the lie detector Fury built, if Tasha can beat it, I can beat it," Ellie said cheerfully, sitting down anyway and allowed herself to be strapped in.

"We'll see," Coulson noted. "You've been fairly blunt with information in the past regardless, so if you could try not to give in to the temptation of lying to prove a point, I'd appreciate it." Another man entered the room, clearly one of the Koenigs Coulson had referred to; Coulson introduced him as Billy. They started with baseline questions. After the baseline, the questions turned to more specifics.

"Why were you at that SHIELD base?" Coulson asked.

"The original owners of that particular item are clients of mine." Ellie explained, "I got wind of it being in SHIELD custody and figured I should grab it before anyone else did. Now HYDRA has it, which is a very bad thing."

"Do you know what it is?"

"Yes," Ellie said, feeling nervous. She had been informed of the Diviner's powers and how it would cause Terragenesis, giving those who were Inhuman their powers, killing the rest. A free Diviner could wreak havoc on the world.

Coulson seemed to be waiting for her to expand on that. He made a small frustrated noise and finally asked, "Can you tell me?"

Ellie shook her head. "Sorry, part of my standard contract with any and all clients include a very strict confidentiality clause. I'm not allowed to discuss the details of the object. What I can tell you that it's extremely deadly and dangerous in HYDRA's hands."

"How can we trust you, then, if you can't answer the most basic information about it?" Coulson asked evenly. Ellie could still hear his frustration and gave a snort of derision. She and Coulson had known each other a long time and he should know exactly why she could be trusted. If Tokyo hadn't proven that, then the global catastrophe they had narrowly avoided in Athens should have. Coulson continued, his voice hard and cold. "Maybe you've taken a contract out with HYDRA? Did they ask you to help them get it?"

Ellie gripped one of the arms of the chair in rage. "That object is very dangerous in their hands," she said tightly. "In anyone's hands. One touch can kill a person. Even a person like me." Ellie's line was tight as she fought to keep her rage in check. She forced her voice to return to its normal timber. "To answer the question," she said as evenly as she could, though her voice wavered, "no, I don't have a contract with HYDRA."

"Alright, answer one more question for me. Have you ever worked for HYDRA?"

Ellie stopped and stared, wide-eyed at Coulson. It was an innocent question. She expected it after what happened to SHIELD, but expecting a question and being forced to answer it were two entirely different things. She closed her eyes, unsure if she wanted to see Coulson's reaction. "I have."

When she opened her eyes, Coulson and Billy Koenig were both staring at her, agape. She knew that the lie detector confirmed her story.

Ellie smiled grimly, knowing that it hadn't been the answer that Coulson was anticipating. "When?" Coulson said, betrayal laced in his voice. "How long were you with HYDRA?"

Ellie looked down in shame. "I didn't know it was a part of HYDRA that I worked for until the data dump," she said tiredly, her grip on the arm easing slightly. "I had left HYDRA due to extenuating circumstances when I was seventeen and I'd rather die than go back."

Coulson sat down heavily. Pity was on his face, but so was understanding and grief. Ellie knew that he knew about Project ASSP. He had mentioned it once to her and Tasha. "You were recruited into Project ASSP. So that was HYDRA too?"

Ellie looked down. "HYDRA hid Project ASSP deep under ground. Before the data dump, I bought the story that it was a rogue CIA group hook, line, and sinker. As it turns out, the director of the CIA has been working with HYDRA since the CIA's inception. So now that I know that HYDRA's responsible, I'll be fighting them from the shadows to bring them all down."

"So you're not here to join SHIELD," Coulson said.

Ellie stood and stretched. "You know my policy on joining groups, Coulson. I don't do that. Groups can't be trusted. There are too many variables. I'm here because I thought Nick was here and because I owed him an explanation about Project ASSP, and he owed me a beer for saving his butt with a data wipe I did for him. All that being said, I'd like to stay here and make sure that Skye is safe and protected and properly prepared for what's coming."

"So you two know each other?" Coulson said, coming over and helping her out of the chair.

"She's my sister, in all but blood," Ellie said with pride. "She's the best thing that could have ever happened to me."

"I suppose you both have that hacking thing going. Was she really the one that taught Tasha how to hack?"

Ellie nodded. "Ten years ago, that girl taught Tasha how to tear apart a system faster than Tasha could field strip her sidearm. We've got our own little family dynamic going that we don't talk about, mostly because I technically don't exist and at the time, Skye was erased from every system in existence by her own hand."

"That... really just raises more questions for me," Coulson admitted.

"Maybe some day you'll get the answers you're looking for," Ellie said with a smirk. "In addition to training Skye, I can tell you everything I know about HYDRA, which is a lot."

"I think you have yourself a deal," Coulson said, extending his hand to shake hers. Ellie grasped it, smiling.


	2. The Family and the Faith

Chapter 2

It took a while for Ellie to escape the Lie Detector, even after she received her lanyard. Coulson wanted to discuss her extensive knowledge of HYDRA operations while she was still strapped down. She told Coulson everything that she could remember, trying her best to remember base locations, floor plans, members of "upper management" as she always termed it. She gave him every mission report detail. Coulson took extensive notes, pausing on occasion with eyebrows raised when she remembered an obscure detail.

At long last she was freed, and went off in search of Skye. She found her adopted sister in a small office, typing away at her computer. "Can you take a break?" Ellie asked.

Skye looked up at Ellie, then grinned. "I've been done for a while now, actually. Figured you would show up here and I could treat you to the finest stale coffee and bagels SHIELD has to offer."

Ellie gave her a critical look, trying to discern if Skye was too skinny, or simply trimmed down due to the constant workouts that Specialist training required. "It's dinner time. You need more than just coffee and a bagel for dinner."

Skye shook her head and closed her laptop. "I need the caffeine if I'm going to stay up and run the security threat assessment on the servers. I want to talk to Mack and Fitz tomorrow about what upgrades we need to electronically secure the base. Director Fury may have maintained the equipment, for the most part, but the servers are over five years old."

"Come on, I promise to get you caffeine with dinner," Ellie said, putting an arm around her.

As it turned out, nearly everyone was already eating spaghetti and meatballs in the mess. Apparently enough SHIELD agents possessed Skye's nutritional mindset that Coulson had decided to start making dinner for anyone who wanted some on a nightly basis.

Ellie spent dinner getting to know her sister's fellow agents. Hartley and Hunter greeted her as warmly as possible, given how they met. Ellie left them alone, knowing that they now grieved for their friend. Mack stared at her when he thought that she wasn't looking. She nearly asked him why he kept staring, but decided against it. She could run a background check that would give her more information than he would give her and if he didn't think that she was on to him he might reveal more information. Truthfully though, she would be running background checks on all of them. Anyone around her baby sister was going to be subject to being checked out for any obvious signs of nefarious activity. Coulson and May both kept to themselves, but even they shot the occasional dubious look in her direction. It got annoying after a while.

Fitz was the only person who really talked to Ellie like she was a person, without hesitation, though sometimes he needed Skye or Mack to fill in words. There was nothing in the files she obtained that suggested Fitz having aphasia or any other neurological issues, but she didn't want to be rude and ask. She instead discussed safer topics. Fitz was over the moon when he found out that Ellie knew a little bit about the networking issues the new base was experiencing, and nodded happily as Ellie gave him several notes on the physical security systems needed to be updated.

As the evening progressed, Ellie noticed Mack apparently relaxing and staring at her a little less. Ellie mentally shrugged as she turned her attention back to the conversation- it wasn't worth getting upset over..

"... run some t-tests to see how well you can... sneak in?" Fitz asked her her.

"Only as long as you make it a challenge," Ellie said with an easy smile. "It's been awhile since I've gotten the chance to play a good game of hide-and-seek; though if you really want a challenge, I should call up Tasha. She's the one who gets paid to infiltrate places."

Fitz paled at the thought and his stutter worsened. "N-n-no, … I …. d-d-don't need to-"

"Fitz, you know Tasha's pretty much my sister," Skye said with a laugh, "You don't have to be afraid of her, or Ellie. They won't hurt you."

"Unless you're HYDRA," Ellie spat. "Then we break your face."

Coulson and May exchanged a look.

"Ward," muttered Fitz.

Ellie turned to the sound and it took a moment for her to register the word. Suddenly, she realized the one person that Skye talked to her about that wasn't there. She looked between Fitz and Skye, her mouth agape and eyes wide as she put the horrifying truth together. "Grant Ward?" she asked carefully. She turned towards Skye, silently asking for confirmation.

Skye's downcast look told her that it was true, and that there was more to the story. Ellie's eyes narrowed as her mouth closed and her lips thinned as she looked to Coulson for confirmation.

"He was part of our team," Coulson said sorrowfully. Ellie let a little bit of her anger go at the clear sense of loss she saw on the faces of Coulson, May, Fitz, and Skye.

"I know," Ellie said, as she dipped her garlic bread into the sauce on her plate. "Skye told me all about you guys. I saw your files- both before and after the data dump."

"I thought Skye removed those files," Coulson said looking at the young woman with an angry glare.

"Who said they were SHIELD files?" Ellie said as evenly as she could. She didn't like the fact that Coulson immediately assumed that her little sister did something wrong any more than she liked the idea of Ward betraying Skye. "HYDRA, the CIA, Mossad... they all have files on you. That's not even talking about what I've seen from the MSS, the GIP, and the NISA. Global security is a myth that would only hold for so long."

Awkward silence settled in for several moments before May turned to the young woman beside her. "I still can't believe _you_ know Romanoff and you never said a word," May said to Skye with a hint of disbelief in her voice. "When we picked you up, you admitted yourself that you spent time as a cosplayer outside of Stark tower."

Skye and Fitz exchanged weak smiles and Coulson looked uncomfortable. Skye finally shrugged. "Clint and Tasha were never really 'Avengers' to me, they've always just been Clint and Tasha."

It was hard not to remember the night that they found Skye. After returning from Madrid, where Ellie extracted the pair from a rather sticky situation without an extraction plan, Clint insisted on a celebratory slice of pizza at one of his favorite pizza places in Lenox Hill.

"That was totally Ellie's fault," Skye said, bringing Ellie out of her thoughts.

"Oh please, that didn't work when you were sixteen and it's not going to work now," Ellie retorted in exasperation. "Coulson's smart enough to figure out that you know what you're doing. He made you a field agent." She turned to Coulson. "I have to give you props for that. I spent the last ten years trying to convince her to pick up even just a little bit of combat training to defend herself, and she's always refused. Ten years I've nagged and pleaded, and you did it in less than two weeks."

"You suck," Skye grumbled, but she smiled softly even as she spoke. They argued over this topic frequently, though there was never any malice in it.

"Before SHIELD," Ellie explained to the others, "Skye always argued that she didn't need the training. She was a hacker and the only attacks she'd ever have to face would be digital."

"Until AC kidnapped me," Skye quipped.

"Remember, Skye. I read the file," Ellie said with a grin. The others, by the looks of things, were enjoying watching them. "I know you got arrested, not kidnapped."

"They still black-bagged me," Skye answered.

"Think of where you'd be if you allowed me and Tasha to train you," Ellie shot back with a smirk.

"Bloody hell, HYDRA's still a thing," Hunter exclaimed. "We're after a stolen alien artifact from the 40s, and Skye knows not one but three superheroes. What's next? Is an evil robot going to try to take over the world?"

"It is pretty unbelievable," Mack said in his deep, steady voice. He didn't blink at all of this news and Ellie wondered if much did shake the man.

"I c-can't believe you never told me," Fitz said softly.

"For a girl who hates secrets, she tends to have a lot of them." Ellie said. Skye threw a roll at her. Ellie caught it, grinned wolfishly, and proceeded to eat it. "Thanks," she mumbled around the bread.

Eventually, talk died down. The others parted ways, returning to work or recreation, while Skye and Ellie remained at the table. Skye played with a piece of garlic bread, waiting for Ellie to start the did so without ceremony. "So, tell me about what happened," she said, quietly. "The last time you messaged me to ask for intel, you and the team were going after Miles. Remember? I advised you not to give him the chance to rabbit."

Skye shrugged, looking down at the mangled crust on her plate. "As it turns out, Miles traded information on an asset for a million dollars. He nearly cost me _everything_ for a million dollars. Including the team's trust."

"Did you get the guy back?" Ellie asked.

"No. He became mentally unstable and exploded," Skye said sadly. "I think that was the moment when I realized that the idea that there shouldn't be any secrets was… naive. Letting secrets like that out could kill people. Why would you let me think any different, knowing what you know?" Skye fixed Ellie with a look of such sorrow that Ellie almost regretted her decision.

"There are some things in this world that you just have to figure out on your own, Skye," Ellie said gently. "You remember, back when I found you, what you thought of people?"

"Hard to forget," Skye said shortly.

"But you learned differently: that people weren't all like that."

"Yeah. There are some people who protect others. There are some people who are good," Skye said softly. She stared down the hallway. "But there's still evil in the world." The look on Skye's face was dark and haunted. One that Ellie saw in the mirror every day. One that she saw on Natasha's face as well. Ellie teared up a little, wanting to gather Skye up and protect her from everything that happened... and the coming war. This was supposed to be her innocent baby sister. She shouldn't have had to bear the weight of the truth of what was out there.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ellie asked, hoping for the answer to be yes, but trying not to press. She thought about insisting on it, but knew from experience that Skye never reacted well to that sort of thing. She just hated the thought of Skye in any kind of pain.

"Nah, just another man in my life teaching me not to rely on them," Skye said, her voice empty. Ellie's heart hurt. She wanted to remind her of Clint and all her male friends at SHIELD. Men weren't all bad. Skye took a stuttered breath and continued. "The whole Nazi thing was new, but the rest of it was pretty much par for the rest of my life."

Ellie gave Skye a side-hug. "I'm sorry. Tell me the rest of it."

"I went on some pretty interesting missions. They restricted my Internet access pretty heavily with what happened with Miles, but internet restrictions haven't ever stopped me before." Ellie grinned and started laughing then stopped when she saw Skye's face. tears filled her eyes, threatening to spill over. "Shortly after, Centipede used Mike to lure out Coulson, and they kidnapped both of them. It was … a challenge to track him down. When I found him, though, he was screaming… it was so horrible." Ellie realized that Skye must have grown fairly close to Coulson. Skye took a couple breaths and wiped the tears away, trying to put on a smile. "But he was okay in the end, so I suppose it wasn't the worst thing that could happen. We were just getting back into the groove of things, when..." Skye stiffened and Ellie waited patiently for her to relax some. Finally, Skye took a breath and exhaled to calm herself down. "We got assigned the task of going after intel of a Centipede delivery in Italy. The assignment led us to one of Ian Quinn's houses. There wasn't any backup available, so... I went in alone. Mike was there, but Centipede... they changed him. And then Quinn just... shot me. Twice. Point blank."

Skye clutched at her stomach. Ellie practically ripped Skye's hand away and pulled the shirt up, inspecting the scars. "How did you survive?" she asked. Her breath panicked as her memories brought her back to the young girl she found a decade previous. "The angle of the trajectory..." She couldn't stop her brain from calculating the math. She couldn't stop any of it. The numbers overloaded her senses. She could see what occurred. Her little sister could have died alone in a basement with little training and no backup. "Eres estúpida? Bist du verrückt? Perché? Per favore, perché vorresti?" Tears streamed down Ellie's face.

Skye looked thoroughly and appropriately ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking," she whispered, her cheeks aflame. Ellie took a breath and wiped away both of their tears. She leaned her forehead against Skye's remembering that her sister was solid and with her and alive. She hadn't joined the others.

"Please think next time," Ellie said softly, trying not to show Skye how scared she was of losing her. She carefully placed the shirt back down and hugged her little sister tightly. "There's only one Skye in the universe, and I don't want to lose her."

Skye nodded her head into Ellie, and after a moment Ellie let her go. "Anyway... AC used the same drug on me that brought him back to life. Apparently it's alien, and we don't know a whole lot about it."

Ellie sighed and pinched her nose. SHIELD clearly planned on continuing its habit of poking things that they didn't understand and blaming others if it didn't work out.

"Are you okay?". Skye never put much stock in her own well-being and needs, something that the system ingrained in her, and it probably wasn't helped any by SHIELD. "Any side effects?"

"I'm fine," Skye responded. Ellie nodded tightly. "How's Clint doing?" Skye asked after the silence.

Ellie saw the hurt and fear on Skye's face. She remembered the terror in Skye's face as Skye helplessly watched Ellie and Natasha wrestle the gun out of Clint's hand after New York. Clint's begging echoed in her mind… _Just let me die,_ Clint pleaded. _I killed him. I don't deserve to live._

"He's better." Ellie said after a moment, realizing that she hadn't yet answered Skye. "He bought an apartment building in Bed-Stuy and adopted a dog named Lucky. He's... adjusting."

Skye regarded Ellie carefully for a long moment, then nodded. Ever since they found Skye, she and Clint became close. Ellie supposed that much like she and Natasha, they bonded over shared childhood experiences. Especially in the early days, they bonded over shared experiences within the system and their less-than-legal escapes from it. Clint and his brother joined the Carnival of Crime at a young age, and Skye taught herself how to hack, having planned to escape in short order right around the time they rescued her. Clint's breakdown after New York scared the young girl more than she cared to admit. Adding that fear to the fact that the other SHIELD agents who came by to debrief the Avengers seemed to blame Clint, Skye quickly turned around and set the blame on SHIELD.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Ellie asked curiously. It wasn't like her sister not to want to tell her every little detail of what happened since they parted.

Skye looked down and started playing with her hands, "I'm fine," she mumbled, far too quickly for it to be true. Ellie knew that Skye was prone to avoid expressing her feelings. Ellie always figured that the number of times that people sent Skye back to the orphanage caused her to question if the people around her really wanted her around regardless of the home, safe or not.

"You should contact them. At least let them know you're alive. Tasha's getting a little worried, and last I heard, Clint wanted to go full-on search party to hunt you down." Ellie saw uncertainty in Skye's eyes and pressed her further: "They'd both love to hear from you. I'm sure Clint will send you photos of Lucky; He's like a new mom with that puppy."

Skye finally broke into a smile at the thought of Clint with a dog and laughed softly. "I'd love to see that." Skye was quiet for a little while before she asked, "Are you going to tell them about AC?"

Ellie nodded, "I was thinking of sticking around here for a little while anyway," she said. Skye's face lit up with joy. "I'm going to give Coulson a chance to come clean, but they need to know. I can't lie to them about this. Not after what we saw. Clint blames himself for a death that never happened."

"It was scary, seeing him after New York," Skye whispered.

"Yeah, it was. Nat too. I don't think Coulson ever considered how devastated they were in all of this," Ellie said quietly. "Sometimes it's hard to reach out to the people who care about you the most, because you're not ready for them to love you."

Skye seemed to be considering the request. There were tears in her eyes. "I'll send emails to them both, I promise," Skye said quietly.

"I'm sure they'll be happy to hear from you," Ellie said. "Now let's go find Fitz and Mack. I want to play hide and seek."


	3. The Index and the Insecurity

Ellie wasted no time in training Skye in every aspect of what it took to be a spy. She didn't just give her a passing knowledge of basic manipulation techniques. Instead she gave her a crash course on how to get out of as many situations as possible. Today started with another endless sparring session. Ellie had to hand it to her baby sister. She never knew anyone to pick up skills the way that Skye could.

"Why didn't you tell us?" grunted Ellie as she attacked Skye during yet another session. "Or at least why didn't you tell Natasha and Clint that Coulson's alive?"

Skye blocked Ellie's strike move and countered. "Do we need to talk about this now?"

Ellie evaded the move and swung her leg out, causing Skye to fall. Skye lay there, panting. Ellie stood, waiting for Skye's answer. Skye sat up before saying anything. "At first, I didn't know and couldn't be sure. The Coulson you guys always talked about seemed like such a tight-wad. AC's cool. Kind of like the team Dad," she wrinkled her nose, got up, and grabbed a bottle of water. "When I learned the truth, I thought about calling Clint or Tasha, but then I … Coulson died," Skye explained. "And not just for a few minutes." Ellie's eyebrows shot up to her hairline and her jaw actually dropped. "He stayed dead for days before they brought him back to life. When Centipede… HYDRA kidnapped him to find out what happened… All I know is that they put him in a machine to force him to remember. When we found him… I still get nightmares about those screams. He remembered being brought back to life. Apparently, he spent the whole time begging to let him die." Skye stayed silent for a moment then looked up and smiled sadly, "besides, telling them he's alive never seemed like something that should be done over the phone," she quipped lightly.

Ellie sat silently for a long moment. She didn't know Coulson all that well apart from the occasional meet-and-greet after she extracted Tasha and Clint from whatever hellhole they'd gotten themselves stuck down, but she liked the man and wished almost no one that much pain. "You never said anything about him, never told me you joined SHIELD… you made it sound like you experienced some come-to-Jesus moment and joined the private sector."

"Yeah well, you hate groups. Especially government groups," Skye said with a bitter smile. "I didn't want you to be disappointed that I decided to join the secret government toolbag crazy plane, or worse, show up and pull me off of it." Ellie said nothing. She disliked the fact that Skye joined SHIELD, but her little sister could make her own choices.

"I'm sorry you felt that way. I wish you told me when these things happened. You know I'll always come and help you if you need it," she said as she helped Skye up.

Skye brushed the dust off her pants. "Yeah, well, I wanted to find my own way."

"And the whole sleeping with Miles thing. Was that you finding your own way? You said that you didn't want to see him anymore," Ellie said without judgment or accusation. "You always ranted to me about how badly he treated you."

Skye looked uncomfortable. "I didn't want to risk him spotting Coulson, May, and Ward a mile away," she admitted. "The whole SHIELD uniform doesn't disguise you much. I figured if I tipped him off, he'd give me a location and I could keep him busy until the team caught up with me."

"Natasha will be proud. I'm proud too," Ellie said. Skye did what she needed to do to get the job done.

"I'm kind of afraid to tell AC. I really don't want him to think less of me." Skye looked down, allowing stray strands of hair to cover her face.

Ellie nodded, understanding the need to keep others out of the loop on that one. Even at SHIELD, most agents didn't sleep with a target to get what they wanted. "I won't tell him, I promise," she said giving Skye a hug. "Now let's go carb up. I'm going to teach you how to aim and shoot a gun while repelling off of a cliff this afternoon." Skye groaned loudly in objection.

Time passed. Ellie could often be found around the SHIELD base, either working on giving Skye as many field skills as possible or talking with Coulson over the out-of-date information on HYDRA. She also sparred with May a few times to demonstrate techniques for Skye, something that seemed to always draw a huge crowd no matter how little warning given. Ellie remained wary of the SHIELD personnel, even Coulson seemed off - different from how he used to be. He seemed more reckless, and thought less about consequences. If Skye hadn't confirmed otherwise, Ellie suspected that someone succeeded in creating an LMD.

Further fueling her suspicion, Coulson also looked exhausted all the time and May gave him looks of concern when she thought that no one saw her. Agents seemed tenser, more serious, and older. You could cut the tension around the base like a knife. The two most common subjects that people talked about were HYDRA and enhanced people, especially with the attack from Carl Creel that caused Idaho's death. She knew that with Carl Creel, the Winter Soldier, and others coming into the light, the Avengers, and powered groups making their voices known that they tended to be a controversial topic around the water cooler, but Ellie started to grow uneasy with the attitude that some SHIELD Agents gained regarding them. She could practically smell the fear on some of them, especially the scientists.

It took a wrong turn when they found out about Donnie Gill. Nobody told her. She overheard two agents gossiping about it and it immediately made her see red. "I'd like a word, Coulson," Ellie yelled, barging into the Director's office furiously.

Coulson looked up from his paperwork. "How can I help you?" he asked in his diplomatic tone.

"Donnie Gill? Really Coulson?" Ellie said, exasperated.

"We're trying to get him back," Coulson said.

"What, so you can just lock him up again?" she spat. "I know about the Index Coulson. I know what you do to people like that. This is the reason why HYDRA got a foothold. This fear, right now."

"He was a danger to himself and others when he got his powers," Coulson explained, his lips compressed

"He was an Agent of SHIELD, Coulson," Ellie said with a deep sigh and a frown. "That used to mean something to you."

"HYDRA used to be gone, Ellie. Now it's back."

Ellie slammed both of her hands on the desk. "Wake up, Phil! HYDRA never left! And if it wasn't HYDRA, it would be someone else. There is always some group out there. I get it, you've taken it in the teeth. You've been lied to and betrayed. That's tough. Get your big boy pants back on and get back to the Phil Coulson that I know."

Phil made a noise of exasperation. "Has it ever occurred to you that that Phil Coulson is gone? I died."

"It occurred to me," Ellie said. "But if you weren't the same Phil Coulson, I don't think that you'd still be here."

"I like to think I would, but I can't be entirely sure any more," Coulson said.

Ellie nodded, pressing on. "About the gifted, Donnie Gill. This is the wrong way to do things."

"Is there a suggestion for an alternative?" Coulson said, sitting down again.

"Send me in," Ellie said. "I'll get him away from HYDRA. I can break him out of the brainwashing. I know people that can do it."

"You'd get him away from us too, if I recall your MO," Coulson said. Ellie smiled. She frequently provided Natasha or Clint with an extraction and sometimes confiscated whatever they had been charged with taking for the safety of all parties involved. Neither Clint nor Natasha were happy about it, but they accepted it as the cost of doing business with Ellie.

Ellie crossed her arms. "SHIELD has yet to prove to me that it can handle gifteds. From what I've seen of this case so far, Donnie won't be safe with you guys either. You'll just want to use him or even run endless tests on him unless you decide that he's too dangerous." She wondered if she could get Bobby Drake to teach Donnie a thing or two about control.

Coulson sighed heavily. "Let's just focus on extracting him. Then we can deal with the rest."

They never got around to extracting him. Instead, the poor boy lay at the bottom of a watery grave. Ellie hated the fact that Donnie died and she couldn't stop it. Ellie's mouth thinned so far that it practically disappeared. She shook with rage as she stormed off to the gym. Skye started after her, but May stopped her. "Let me," she said with understanding. Ellie might not want to see her baby sister just now.

When May walked into the gym, she found Ellie pounding on the heavy bag with more force than May thought she should be able to muster.

"I'm sorry, for what it's worth," May said.

"The apology isn't necessary," Ellie growled. She punched the heavy bag with enough force that May could tell she held back during their sparring sessions. "Or wanted."

"There weren't a lot of options. Gill's powers are dangerous."

Ellie raised an eyebrow, "There are always other options, May. SHIELD has gone after dangerous people before and made a different call."

"Those resources aren't available any more," May explained calmly.

Ellie stopped and stared at May. "So you guys are just going to put down every dangerous gifted out there? Because if that's the play then your work is going to be cut out for you. You gonna register them to make sure they don't destroy the world?" Ellie went back to pounding on the heavy bag and May came over and steadied it. "An Agent of SHIELD, Coulson, and you turned your back on him when he needed the most help. You're telling me that you couldn't ice the guy and undo the programming?"

May said nothing for a moment, unable to deny this. "At least he's not in HYDRA control," May noted.

"Someone is still dead. Someone who never asked for any of this. He was just a mixed up kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. Quinn offered him what he wanted most, SHIELD locked him up, HYDRA brainwashed him. None of this was his fault and you people act like you did some good today." Ellie looked dead at May as she said this, her voice hard and judgmental.

"You're right. Coulson knows you're right. He's just dealing with a lot right now."

"No offense May, but that's total bullshit," she said, leaving the gym and May behind as quickly as possible.

Ellie headed for the rafters, where she watched Mack working on the Bus with Fitz while Hartley and Hunter sat in a corner talking. Coulson approached her, "I thought I'd find you up here," he said. "You and Clint always liked to be far up. Why is that?"

"Most people don't come up and bug us," Ellie growled as she checked her email, the only way she communicated with pretty much anyone.

Coulson sat down on the beam and Ellie regarded him carefully. Coulson sighed heavily. "Sometimes I have to make the hard call, but you're right. We failed Donnie Gill. We failed a lot of people. We're not perfect."

"None of us are," Ellie said coolly. "The point isn't to be perfect. The point is to do the right thing. HYDRA treats powered people as if we're weapons. Over the past century we've been brainwashed and tortured and enslaved. Choose a side and soon. Work with us or against us, because change is coming."

"You know, I don't think I ever asked. You have contracts with a lot of people within groups but you've never worked with a group. Why?"

Ellie smiled, "SHIELD turned out to be HYDRA and you're really asking me why I don't work with groups?"

"Point," Coulson conceded.

"It's harder to help people when you work for a group like SHIELD or the X-Men or the Avengers. I don't play by the rules, and groups need rules to function. For me to be effective. I break those rules. My work has no political agenda. There's no red tape. That way, it's people who benefit directly."

"You have to admit though, HYDRA would be easier to defeat if they didn't have access to so many of these people without SHIELD keeping an eye on them. If we knew their identities, we could help them..."

"Often times, Coulson, you're going to have to chose between what is right and what is easy," Ellie said airily. Coulson gave her a _look_ and Ellie held up both of her hands. "Skye's my baby sister. Of course I read them! I may not know much about the world outside of the spy business, but what I do know, I know from Skye." Coulson laughed. Ellie deftly jumped up and walked back to the door. She turned around and fixed Coulson with a piercing stare. "But seriously, Coulson. Think about what's coming seriously."

"I promise," Coulson said, matching her stare.

She found Skye sitting on the stairs, staring at the door that led down into Vault D about an hour later. Skye started when Ellie entered the room. "Hey, I'm so sorry about earlier."

Ellie stiffly shook her head. "Don't be. I understand. Sometimes you have to follow orders. Just don't forget that you have a sensible head on those shoulders. You don't have to be here. If it feels wrong, trust your gut."

"Yeah," Skye said softly. They sat in silence, both lost in thought for a while.

"Skye, do you remember what I told you about my childhood?" Ellie asked suddenly, unsure if she could . She wanted to shield her from all the bad in the world, but couldn't bring herself not to tell her.

Skye nodded, "You told me that it was like the Red Room and as a teenager Hank found you and got you out," Skye said. Ellie nodded. She couldn't tell Skye the whole truth, not here, but she didn't want to say any more with ears listening.

Ellie took a deep breath and Skye looked at her with worry. "It was HYDRA, Skye."

Skye looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "I kind of figured that part out for myself." Ellie stared at her. "I saw a couple of mentions to it in the data dump and to be honest, I never really thought the C.I.A. could come up with something like that. They're not that covert."

Ellie shook her head in wonder. Her little sister's intelligence sometimes shocked even her. "You amaze me, you know that?"

Skye smiled knowingly at Ellie. "You amaze me too," Skye said. "With all you've been through, your first instinct isn't to kill, but to protect. I saw you at the old SHIELD base. You went for me when everyone else went for cover."

Tears welled up in Ellie's eyes as she looked sadly at Skye and not for the first time wondered how deep the effects of the system went. "You're my sister, Skye. My baby sister at that. Protecting you is the easiest choice I could ever make. Tasha would say the same thing. You are worth something to so many people in this world, Skye. You helped Clint so much in those early days after New York. You brought him back to himself. You've insisted on spending every freaking Thanksgiving and Christmas together each year. You're the reason why we all have a family in the first place."

Skye cracked a grin and Ellie followed, remembering their last Christmas together, spent in a laser tag hall in Chicago. They followed it up with going to a safe house of a friend of a friend of Ellie's who Ellie promised all of them "could be completely trusted," which usually meant that he had active warrants for multiple countries, and Ellie making them a superb Christmas dinner.

"So when are you leaving?" It physically hurt Ellie to even think about leaving when she looked at the disappointment on Skye's face and dripping from her voice. Ellie always left. She knew Skye hated that about her. She always came back, but she would always leave again like a ship passing in the night.

Ellie cocked her head, holding back her fear and anger. "Do you want me to stay?" She would, if Skye asked her to, and she knew that Skye knew that.

Skye looked at her for a moment, then came up to her and hugged her. "It's okay. I figured you might need some time after what happened with Donnie. Can you make your barbecue pork bombs when you get back?"

Ellie grinned at her little sister's request. Ellie learned how to cook as part of her HYDRA training. Back then, Ellie trained in as many skills as possible, including a couple skills that she once used under cover. Ellie dropped almost all of her skills when she left HYDRA, but she kept cooking and increasing her skill. "I don't know how long I'll be gone. What if I made them tonight?"

"What the bloody hell is this?" Hunter asked nearly an hour and a half later when they all sat down to dinner. Ellie really outdid herself with the spread of food, making not only Skye's request, but sides and dessert.

"Are these what I think they are?" Coulson asked. Ellie couldn't help but grin. Clint raved about her pork bombs.

"Barbecue Pork Bombs made with bourbon gravy, mashed potatoes, and salad," Ellie said. "I also made a strawberry shortcake for dessert. It's my little goodbye present to you. Skye's request." Everyone served themselves and started eating.

The group was amazed by the food. "You can kick ass, you look the way you do, and you cook like this? How are you not married?" Hunter asked, and the others nodded in agreement as they shoveled food in their mouths.

"Is that a proposal, Lance Hunter?" Ellie asked dryly.

Skye smirked and watched the exchange continue while she dug into her own food, knowing that her sister liked to mess with people. She frowned a little, remembering the last time Ellie made her the meatballs.

"You okay?" Coulson asked quietly. The rest of the group distracted by Ellie's and Hunter's antics.

Skye used her fork to idly fluff her already-fluffed mashed potatoes. "After New York… the only person that I've ever thought of as a brother… I didn't even recognize him," Skye admitted softly. "Afterwards, people didn't trust him. Like he could have controlled that. I hated SHIELD for that."

"So you really do know them," Coulson said.

"I prefer not to broadcast it. I know them as Clint and Tasha, not as Agents of SHIELD or Avengers. We spend Thanksgiving and Christmases together. New Year's Eve is always fun with those three. Natasha's really taken to hacking so we share tips and things, and Clint and I understood each other ever since the start."

"You never said anything," Coulson said.

Skye picked at her potatoes, debating what to say. "My relationship with Ellie has always been... private.," Skye said in a tone a far cry from her usual one. She was still and avoided eye contact with Coulson. Coulson furrowed his brow. Skye seemed uncharacteristically quiet. "She and Clint and Tasha always kept me away from this world, mostly because I never wanted any part of it. I always felt like I've seen enough terrible things in my life that I didn't need to add to it. I think, though, that Ellie always tried to shield me from it."

Coulson smirked. "She does seem rather protective of you," he noted.

"She's protective of pretty much everyone given the right circumstances," Skye amended.

The next morning, Ellie packed her things and was on her way out of the base. The others said their farewells at breakfast, but the adopted sisters gave their goodbyes in private.

"Call me as often as you can?" Skye asked her.

"I'll try," Ellie said. "As long as you promise never to go radio silent either."

Skye smiled. "I think I can promise that."

Ellie shouldered her bag and put on her motorcycle helmet. She rubbed the compass on her bike. It was a custom job that she had received from a good friend and would be pissed if she lost it, so she was glad when Hartley offered to drive her to go pick it up from where she had left it before infiltrating SHIELD. Ellie smiled as turned towards Skye. "Keep the faith," she said with a smile.

"Keep safe," Skye said softly.


	4. The Spies and the Story

Mornings at Avenger Tower were always interesting. Steve didn't need much sleep and got up first, dragging Sam to go out for their run. Natasha woke up next and would make a bee-line for the coffee pot, pouring a giant cup and getting the paper. Everyone knew not to bother her until she drank at least two cups of coffee.

Bruce came in next, and would grab a cup of tea and read through whatever thing that Tony worked on the night before. If Thor was on Earth, he would enter the kitchen loudly, grabbing an an entire box of pop-tarts in addition to his breakfast of eggs and toast. Sam and Steve would then return from their run. Steve would make the same bagel sandwich breakfast that he made every day and would read the paper if Natasha finished with it. Sam usually had already left to go shower and put in a few hours volunteering at the VA in Brooklyn.

The Avengers all thought this would be a morning like any other, but they were wrong. Natasha got up to get her second cup of coffee when a tall brunette woman landed on Natasha's shoulders. They all jumped. Natasha immediately reacted, grappling the woman, pinning the woman her to the ground before anyone could react beyond tensing up. They all jumped when the brunette started cackling madly.

Natasha grinned as she got off the woman and hugged her. "Ellie!" Every single other person in the room stared at the sight in total shock.

"Tash!" the woman greeted, with equal glee and hugging back. "How's it going, slumming it here with the simpletons?"

"I'm sorry, simpletons?" Stark questioned.

"I'm sorry, but who the hell is this?" Steve demanded.

"This is Ellie," Natasha said. "My sister."

"The Black Widow has a sister?" Stark asked shocked and curious. He immediately started typing into his nearest computer and shortly started shaking his head.

"Try looking under 'S-E-N-T-I-N-E-L'," Ellie snarked.

Bruce did a double-take. "You're the Sentinel?" he choked out. Natasha looked amused.

"'Always watchful, standing in the dark, faithful to the powerless, and will fight until the end,' or something crap like that," Ellie said. "It's all bullshit."

"The Sentinel's a myth," Stark said. He crossed his arms and gave a short laugh.

"Well, most of it is anyway," Clint said. Ellie threw a quarter at him which he easily caught.

"And you're the Black Widow's sister. You were part of the Red Room too?" Stark asked, ever curious and trying to put the puzzle together,

"Nope, you don't get that information from me," Ellie said sharply. "I've stayed off of everyone's radar by shutting up beyond what you knew before five minutes ago."

"Who's the Sentinel?" Steve asked curiously.

"It's a ghost story," Bruce said in utter disbelief. "A comforting tale for do-gooders in third-world countries who get in trouble with the government or any number of corrupted powers. The Sentinel always watches over those who deserve to be watched over."

"That's the story," Ellie said. "My name is Ellie." She turned to Natasha and switched to Russian. "Has Skye emailed you yet?"

"Yes. She started emailing me again a few weeks ago. Working for SHIELD now? Our little pseudo-anarchist?" Natasha asked, following suit. "She sent me a picture of herself with one of those ridiculous SHIELD water bottles."

Ellie shrugged at Natasha, "From what I could tell, she's picking things up pretty quickly."

"We should visit. Clint and I could give her some tips," Natasha said.

"We'll get to that," Ellie said. Ellie switched back to English. "You were at the Triskellion, right?"

"I was," Natasha said.

"I need you to answer some questions honestly," she said. "Questions that I'm guessing that only you can answer."

Natasha looked one look at her, then nodded once. She wordlessly exited the room and Ellie followed her. Once they reached the elevator, the doors automatically opened. "JARVIS, my floor please?"

Ellie closed her eyes and let the data in. Seeing something that she'd never seen before, she opened her eyes and looked heavenward. "Oh, you sexy thing you."

"Ellie, am I correct that you are monitoring my source code somehow?" JARVIS asked.

"Sexy, I'm more than monitoring it," Ellie said with a bit of swagger.

The door opened. "Might I ask how?" JARVIS asked.

"I have a particular talent and I know how to use it," Ellie said with a knowing smile.

Natasha rolled her eyes and exited the elevator when it came to a stop and the doors opened. "You'd be right, so why the secrecy? Why the need to know now?" Natasha asked her. She shifted. The wheels in Natasha's head started turning before Ellie could answer and they wouldn't stop until Ellie told Natasha the truth.

Ellie paced, suddenly nervous. Natasha was her sister, and she trusted her. Natasha wouldn't ever walk away from her, even after being told something like this, but this secret was big and dangerous. People could die over this secret and she really didn't want it being Natasha. "Did you see… about Project ASSP on the data dump..."

Natasha's eyes filled with the pain and memories of the past. They looked as old and weary as Ellie felt. "It seems like both of us worked for HYDRA."

Ellie looked down at her feet, "There are things I never told you .. things about how I became…" She took the deepest breath she could. "My father's the Winter Solider," she whispered.

Natasha looked at Ellie for half a second in shock, then took two steps and wrapped her into a hug. "This is a good thing," Natasha said. Quite suddenly, Ellie found herself standing alone in the room. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to piece together whatever thing that Natasha knew that she didn't. She only hoped that Natasha wasn't off to immediately tell the other Avengers so that they could seek revenge or something like that. She hoped that she wouldn't be hunted down because of the crimes her father committed while brainwashed by HYDRA. For one thing, she wasn't a big fan of running. For another, she didn't think that she'd ever get another chance at having a family. Certainly not a family like this.

"You can see data. Information," JARVIS stated in the quiet.

"It's my sixth sense," Ellie said dryly. "Like your boss's chest piece."

Natasha returned with Steve Rogers behind her and Ellie shrank into herself for a second, fairly certain that she couldn't win against him. It didn't matter, she reminded herself as she stood tall. She'd fight for her father, to free him, until her last breath.

"Tell Steve what you told me," Natasha demanded smoothly.

Ellie folded her arms and tensed. She paced again, disliking the idea of telling a man so virtuous her deepest secret right off the bat. She never admitted this aloud to anyone before now and she didn't want to start blabbering it to everyone she came across. But she trusted Natasha and, like Skye, she'd do anything for her. "The Winter Solider is my father," Ellie repeated, holding up her hands and flinching away from the oncoming attack.

Instead of attacking her, Rogers sat down heavily, wide-eyed at her. "What – what did you say?"

"My father is the Winter Solider," she said in a tiny voice about an octave above anywhere near her normal speaking voice. "And if you think for one second that I'm going to let you hurt him, you've got another thing coming." Her voice shook. Everything else shook too. Tears welled up in her eyes and her face went cherry-red. "He didn't know any better. They brainwashed him. They've been brainwashing him for years!"

Suddenly, Rogers got up and stared at her with an emotion that Ellie couldn't identify. "We know," Steve said thickly.

She stood up straight again and looked between Steve and Natasha, eyebrows heaven-ward as she searched the faces of the two in front of her for confirmation. Looking for the truth. "What?"

"We know he's not responsible for what he did," Steve said calmly and evenly.

"How," Ellie demanded. "How do you know? How could you possibly know?" Tears and snot streamed down her face. She nearly took a step forward and took a swing at him. He needed to tell her the truth.

"Because I know who he is," Steve said. "James Buchanan Barnes."

Even with probability and permutation that Ellie had calculated, she never thought she'd receive the information she had so long been looking for. She paled and felt suddenly light-headed. Her father had a name. She could find someone with a name. She could find anyone with a name. Names. Names were really important. She had a name. Someone said something to her, or asked her something. She couldn't be sure. She wondered when it had become so difficult to breathe She felt her vision go black all of a sudden and her body seemed to swing downwards, though she couldn't be sure where reality ended and the blackness began. Two strong hands grabbed her. Those seemed real.

And then quite suddenly she on the ground, lying with her feet stacked on pillows and her head in Captain America's lap. James Buchanan Barnes. The name sounded familiar. Suddenly, she bolted upright in realization and immediately regretted her decision. The world swayed, her stomach churned, and Steve caught her again, leaning against a chair.

"Here, give her this," Natasha said. She sounded worried. Ellie wondered why. Ellie worried and mothered in their family. Natasha never seemed to worry. Something cool met her lips and she instinctively drank.

"My father. My father has a name. Oh my god, I can't believe I have a name," Ellie said weakly. At Natasha's prompting, she took another sip of water before continuing. "Bucky? My father is Bucky Barnes, the war hero?" she asked.

Captain America continued to stare at her in total wonder. "I can't believe Bucky has a daughter. How?" he whispered. He looked at her like she might break or disappear. Ellie broke eye contact with Steve, a blush rising to her cheeks and her eyes downcast. "How much do you know about medical advancements since the War?" she asked quietly. Natasha put a hand in hers, anchoring her to the present.

"I'm not sure I understand," Steve asked, confused.

"I … HYDRA didn't … conceived in the typical way," Ellie said. "They took Bucky's DNA and mixed it with a mutant's egg and then put the fertilized egg back into the mutant, my mother. They called it IVF, in vitro fertilization, and released it to the public as a medical miracle. They conceived me as a weapon for their cause."

Rogers looked properly horrified at this "I grew up being trained in a program much like the Red Room. Like all mutants, I gained my powers when I hit puberty at which point they trained me to use that too." Ellie looked down solemnly as she continued, "I met him once, you know? My father, the Winter Solider." She swallowed, feeling like a bowling ball was stuck in her throat. "Not long after my sixth birthday, or near it at least since we didn't celebrate them, he just came back from a mission and they decided they wanted him training us on something. I don't remember what any more. He took one look at me and just whispered 'Becca' like the word meant everything to him. All of a sudden he grabbed me and started running and talking all kinds of stuff about Brooklyn and something about the SSR and I think he mentioned Peggy Carter at one point. I didn't really understand any of it, being so young and all. They gave us the files on our parents, I think to keep us in line. If we failed or tried to rebel, HYDRA would hurt them, that sort of thing. All the other kids seemed super jealous of me because of who I came from. But I saw the truth in my origins. I would always be HYDRA's and only theirs. The others had loving parents and had been stolen. I was genetically engineered to be a weapon from the start. My parents didn't even know - don't even know that I'm alive."

"Did you get off the base?" Steve asked in his quiet manner, his face blank. Ellie could still pick up on the quiet undertones of Steve's sorrow. At least she heard no pity in his voice.

Ellie nodded, shaking the tears from her eyes at the memory. "We got about fifty yards from the highway when they took us down."

"That must have been horrible," Steve said, his voice full of compassion.

He put a hand on Ellie's knee and Ellie's heart broke a little at what she would need to tell Steve next. "They dragged him back and carried me, then they put him in this chair. They forced me to watch as they wiped him and told me that if I ever acted out of line again, they'd do it to him over and over again until he quite simply died. They never put us together again after that. My last memories of him were of him screaming."

Steve looked horrified, either at the idea that HYDRA tortured his brother in all but blood or that they forced his niece to watch. Ellie took a deep breath and soldiered on. "Years later, I was rescued by my mother's people and pretty much my only mission since has been to find him again. I want him back. And I think I've got an idea on how to find him, but I need your help."

"You think you know how to find Bucky."

"I knew someone once who went through something similar. He spent a long time retracing his steps. He spent months trying to remember his old life, if you could call his childhood a life."

They sat in silence until a crackle from the overhead coms made Steve and Ellie jump apart. "Hey Cap," Stark's voice said over the speakers. "It's time for the Avenger workout, you forget?"

"It's canceled," Steve said shortly.

"No, don't cancel it," Ellie pleaded. "I'd love to join you. I haven't gotten to spar with a decent workout partner in a long while."

"I don't know," Steve said slowly.

"Afraid you can't keep up Uncle Steve?" Ellie asked with a smile. "Tasha, you want to go a few rounds? Show the other Avengers what sparring really looks like?"

"The Sentinel vs. The Black Widow again," Natasha said with a wry smile.

"The USSR vs. The United States," Ellie said. Steve's eyes furrowed and Ellie laughed. "We once thought of each other as enemies," Ellie explained. "The Black Widow, the best spy the KGB possessed, and I, the oldest and best female assassins in Project ASSP. We went head-to-head a couple of time."

"Who won?" Steve asked as they entered the elevator.

Ellie laughed, "She's still alive, isn't she?"

"You know," Stark said from the boxing ring as they entered the gym. "I always thought that you'd be taller, Pandora." Both men stopped boxing to watch her.

"The swifter to kick you in the balls with," Ellie said sweetly.

"Ouch. So are you like our mutual Widow friend here, because the first time we met was in a church just like this one."

"Stark, if we ever meet in a church like that one, you'd be in traction for a month," Ellie said.

"Feisty, I like it," Stark said.

"Ignore him," Natasha said, rolling her eyes.

"That's the same guy that saved Manhattan from a nuke?" Ellie asked. Steve laughed.

Bruce left the boxing ring, degloving. "I've gone three rounds with you, Tony. I've got work to do. Why don't you ask Steve?"

"I could go a few rounds," Steve said with a feral grin.

Bruce made his way over to Natasha and Ellie. "I'm Doctor Bruce Banner," Bruce said, extending a hand.

"I know, Doctor," Ellie said with a warm smile. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"A fan of my work or my Avenger-ing?" Bruce asked cautiously.

Natasha let out a snort and Bruce's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm sorry, is there something funny?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor, my sister here never told you because I asked her not to. I've been keeping an eye on you ever since that unfortunate lab accident of yours."

"Natasha?" Bruce asked forcefully.

"She likes to do that, keep an eye on people," Natasha said with a smirk.

"People with powers, anyway," Ellie corrected.

"Why?" Bruce demanded.

"To keep groups like the Ten Rings, SHIELD, HYDRA, and your own government from locking you away. You honestly think that Fury didn't want to? You should know that I called in some pretty big favors to swing that one from Fury. To let you save the third world. Not that you owe me anything, of course."

"And what gives you the right?" Bruce spat.

"Because HYDRA held me captive for years. They tortured me and I don't want anyone to do that to another powered person ever again," Ellie shot back. Her eyes flew wide as she took a step back and covered her mouth.

Bruce switched between anger and sorrow in less than a second. "I'm sorry. I- so you watch over powered people without them ever knowing about it? How?"

"I think I'd like to know that too," Stark said from about ten feet away.

Ellie inwardly groaned. She could only imagine how much of a pain in the ass Stark was going to be. She didn't like other people knowing her secrets. It put them in danger. She also didn't like the pity she saw in their eyes when they found out. All in all, it went against her instincts to talk about her personal story, but to bring HYDRA down, she would need to tell her story, and the Avengers seemed as good of a place to start as any. "My mother… HYDRA captured my mother and implanted her with sperm. As a mutant, she passed powers down to me. My mother, it's said, could control electrical currents, while I can quite literally see data." She regarded them all, especially Stark, mindful of the exits.

"So you can see any data. JARVIS? You can see JARVIS?"

"You mean, Sexy? We've met," Ellie said with a grin.

"You call JARVIS 'Sexy'? Maybe you're more Doctor than Pandora," Stark said with a laugh. Ellie allowed herself to relax a little.

"JARVIS is no TARDIS, Mr. Stark. Just one damn fine cluster of coding. You don't seem surprised that I'm powered," she noted.

"Honestly? I kinda suspected it. Based on every Internet report about you out there, you seem to keep popping up in the middle of trouble faster than is humanly possible, then disappear without a trace."

"You just may be as smart as people give you credit for."

"At least most of the time," Bruce said. The man still looked a little shocked that someone had been looking after him. Tony made a noise of objection. "It's very nice to meet you. I just need to, er, check something in my lab."

Ellie nodded her goodbye and the three enhanced humans made their way over to the sparring mat, shedding anything that would injure the other party too badly. Ellie grinned in anticipation. She hadn't had fun like this since the Christmas before Skye disappeared.

Clint opened the door to his apartment and immediately tensed up. He felt someone in his apartment. He could tell based on the way the air shifted.

Footsteps approached him and Clint grabbed a baseball bat. "Strip, Clint Barton," commanded a familiar voice. "Oh, come on Clinton. A baseball bat? Can you be more of a cliché?"

"Hey River," Clint said tiredly, lowering the bat. "What are you doing here?"

"Your kitchen had no food in it whatsoever and I'm fairly sure there was mold growing in your bathroom. Plus, you first-aid kit sucked based on your penchant for getting hurt. So I've cleaned every surface that I could and gone grocery shopping. Lucky's been given a bath. Steve made Mac and Cheese and Pot Roast and I put a meat and a spinach lasagna in the oven about five minutes ago. Now I'm about to your laundry, since the clothes that you think are clean are at least six weeks old. And stop referencing Firefly."

When he left his apartment a few hours earlier, he noticed that he would need to go shopping, and now his place somehow gained a lived-in feel that it previously lacked no matter how hard he tried, complete with one nagging older sister. Clint gazed around the room in wonder, suddenly registering who sat contentedly on the floor, petting Lucky. "Don't look at me for an escape route. I'm fast learning that there's no arguing with her," Steve said, raising both hands in surrender. Lucky whined at the sudden halt of the body rub, demanding that it continue.

"I didn't know you even knew Ellie," Clint said as he took off his shirt and passed it to her. She passed him a new pair of pants. Ellie nodded her thanks and left towards the laundry room.

Steve looked curiously at Clint. Clint matched the look. "Tasha finally found someone you like?" Clint finally asked.

Steve switched to scratching Lucky's ears as he gave a tired smile. "She hasn't set me up on any dates lately, no."

"So… what's up with you and Ellie?"

Ellie bustled back in looking disgusted. "When was the last time you changed your sheets Clinton, I found a petrified cheeseburger in there." She froze at the scene before her. "Okay… I guess this is going to take some explanation." She stood in silence as the pair stared back at her. "Uh… I … uh… ." Clint's eyebrows knitted further. Ellie never stammered and she rarely freaked out. "My father's the Winter Soldier, Clint."

Clint's eyebrows went from furrowed to his eyeline in less than a millisecond. "Bucky Barnes," he breathed.

"Apparently," Ellie said, nodding.

"Ellie… this is… this is huge." Clint said. "Your family. You found a name. How can I help?"

"Steve and I are gonna go looking for him," Ellie said.

"I'm coming with," Clint said immediately, heading towards the bedroom to pack, forgetting that all his clothes were currently in the basket in front of his sister.

"Clint," Ellie started but paused. Clint was her little brother. Family. And Ellie felt obligated to protect her family from HYDRA raining holy hell down on anyone who so much as thought of standing against them. If HYDRA found her she could be very well getting three people she dearly loved killed. Four now. Four people that the world had given her to love. If they found her, everything would be so much worse for them.

"Clint," she started again, setting down the laundry basket and taking a few steps toward him. "I need to do this with Steve."

"I'm your family too," Clint argued.

"My brother from another," Ellie agreed with a teary smile. "But if I'm killed, I need you to release everything. Make sure that there's some Avenger backing the story as credible, yeah?" Steve looked horrified at the thought.

"Yeah," Clint said softly. "I can do that."

"Keep in touch," Ellie said. "I'm always an email away."

"That's a two-way street, Ellie," Clint pointed out.

"Yes it is. Also, stop Instagramming photos of Lucky. I'm scared that a fangirl might actually get up the courage to come out here. And don't let me see you living in such squalor ever again. You're a grown man and an Avenger. You need more than beer in your fridge."

"Fuck you!"

"Yeah, I'm just gonna say ew."

"Love ya, River."

"Stop referencing Firefly," Ellie growled, then embraced him tightly. "But I love you too."

They returned to the tower where Natasha sat waiting for them in the lobby. According to JARVIS, whom Ellie silently consulted, Banner and Stark holed themselves up in one of the R&D labs and based on past history, they wouldn't be leaving for the next couple of days.

Ellie opened her mouth, but stopped when her cell phone rang. "You've reached Ellie," she barked.

"I need an extraction. Two people. London. Tomorrow at 9am. I'll double your usual fee," the caller said.

"Text me the details," Ellie responded.


	5. The Rescue and the Riot

Author's Note: This is not a Ward happy-fic. Ward is not a good guy in this fic. If you are a fan of Ward, there's a bright and shiny back button up at the top of your window. Love it. Use it.

Other trigger warnings for this chapter include: threats of rape, death threats, mentions of period-typical racism, mentions of the KKK, and graphic violence

"I've got an extraction that I need to go attend to, but I should be back tomorrow," Ellie said after hanging up the phone.

Uncle Steve looked utterly crushed. "You're leaving?" he asked quietly. "Where are you going?"

Ellie looked at the secured message that came through on her phone. "Looks like a HYDRA base in London that two SHIELD agents need to be extracted from," Ellie said.

"I'm coming as your backup." Natasha said.

"You're infiltrating a HYDRA base? Alone?"

"Relax, Uncle Steve," Ellie said with a smile. "I'm a pro at this." He didn't look convinced.

Natasha gained a mischievous grin. Ellie studied her expression, her eyebrows slowly knitting together in curiosity. "What?" Ellie finally asked.

"You call him Uncle Steve?" Natasha said, her voice laced with teasing laughter.

"That's his name," Ellie said with a smirk. She considered the pair before her. She understood her Uncle's insistence on coming along, now that they found each other. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she rather wanted him to come along. Natasha, additionally, could be useful in case things went south and in returning to the SHIELD base she could keep her promise to Coulson to not say anything to the Avengers while simultaneously revealing that Coulson was still alive. Natasha wouldn't kill Coulson without letting him explain… probably. "Okay, you can come along. Might as well use the Avenger backup while I can," Ellie said. Both Uncle Steve and Natasha smiled.

The flight to London only took a few hours, and they filled the time exchanging stories about Bucky and the family that Ellie and Natasha chose. Since Steve already knew Clint, they spent a good portion of the time telling him all about Skye.

Arriving in London, she sent arrival confirmation and directed Natasha to the correct rooftop. Getting off the plane, Ellie turned towards Natasha. "Stay up here. If HYDRA figures out it's me, or you know, on the off-chance I need backup, I'll send out the alert." Ellie pulled out her favorite red mask and put it on, then put up the hood to her blood-red sweater.

"You sure I can't come with?" Natasha asked. "It might be fun, a little sisterly bonding?"

"Nah, I like this," Ellie said with a evil smile. "'Out of the darkness' and all that."

"You've got that look on your face," Natasha said slowly. She then smiled. "Have fun."

"Just like last time?" Ellie asked with a smile.

"You almost died last time," Natasha said seriously, looking a little scared. Ellie didn't blame her. That mission really didn't end well, but it bonded the two together. During that mission, they formed a bond that jump-started them becoming a family, eventually adding Clint and Skye into the fold.

"Almost counts for horseshoes and hand grenades, Tasha." Ellie said, opening the hatch to the air vent. "Besides, do you really want to live forever?" She grinned oddly as she hopped down the air vent. She could almost hear Natasha groaning after her.

Ellie had to hand it to HYDRA. They made their weapons well. Their agent training, however, seemed to be lacking something. She lost count of how many agents she stunned or killed as she searched for her targets.

"There she is!" came a shout. Someone in a lab coat ran into her and Ellie spotted the speaker. One of her targets. The lab coated person struggled to get out of Ellie's grip when Ellie caught a proper glimpse of her.

The young woman matched the picture that the Director sent her. Ellie leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Coulson sent me. Just get behind me and you'll be fine."

She quickly took out a flash bang and slid it towards the oncoming group, covering the lab coat's ears and eyes as she shut her own.

When she turned back around, she saw that only two had the common sense to duck and cover. She spotted her other dark-haired target just behind the man who led the charge. "Well, not much can be said for HYDRA recruitment these days," the woman said.

A man stood at the front of the pack, muscles tense and clutching a knife. "Cut off one head," he said.

Ellie instantly raised the gun she'd been holding and squeezed the trigger. The man fell backwards, dead. "Yeah, I got the memo, ace," she snapped.

"Agent Morse, I presume?" Ellie said.

"I assume that you'd be the favor that Coulson mentioned in his last communication?"

"Yeah," Ellie said. "Let's get you two to the plane."

Ellie quickly got both women up to the roof. Natasha took control of keeping the plane steady in the air, and her Uncle helped her get the pair on.

"You okay?" Steve asked in concern.

"Easy peasy," Ellie said with a grin as Bobbi dragged Simmons into the jet. "Just an extraction." Her uncle grabbed her around the waist and they climbed into the jet as well. "Tasha, let's go!" Ellie shouted. Natasha hit the gas and they zoomed up to a much higher altitude a few seconds later.

"Holy shit," the high, British voice made Steve and Ellie turn and looked at the British scientist. "You're..."

"Steve," her Uncle said almost forcefully, extending a hand.

"Ellie," Ellie said doing the same.

Simmons stood, stunned, and Morse took the step forward. "Really pleased to meet you," Bobbi said with a wide grin. "It's an honor. Thanks for the rescue."

"Ellie did all the heavy lifting," Steve said proudly. He turned to his niece. "Are you sure that you're okay?"

Ellie laughed and took off her hoodie, revealing a baby blue tank top, "no blood, I'm all good."

Bobbi and Simmons stared at their interaction and Steve zeroed in on her arm. "You're bleeding," he said in surprise.

Ellie glanced at the cut. For normal people it might mean a couple of stitches. For her it would be healed by the afternoon. She shrugged as Simmons' face changed as she suddenly looked concerned.

"Oh, let me look at that," she said, taking a step forward.

"I'll be fine," Ellie said with a smile. "It's just a cut."

"Let her look at it," pleaded Steve.

Ellie rolled her eyes and allowed Simmons to sit her down and clean the wound. Bobbi kept looking between the pair of them. "Is something going on between you two?" Morse asked.

"Just slap some gauze on there, Simmons," Ellie said, ignoring the question. "No stitches; This'll heal in a couple hours."

"Enhanced?" Simmons asked curiously.

"Something like that, yeah." Ellie said as Simmons wrapped up the wound. "Enhancement changes your DNA."

"I thought all of Rogers' DNA got destroyed back in the 40s," Morse said.

"As far as I know," Ellie said, examining her hoodie. "Damn, I got blood on it. Think Stark's staff can get it out?" she asked her uncle. "Course he might just sell it on eBay."

"I have some tips from the 40s that might work," Steve said.

"I'm gonna go up and make sure whoever's piloting this thing knows where we're going," Bobbi said quickly. Ellie grinned as she caught Jemma looking between her and Steve.

A few more seconds, Bobbi burst back in, "So _Natasha Romanoff_ is the pilot?" she asked. Ellie sighed. This was going to be a long flight.

Landing at SHIELD, Morse and Simmons deplaned immediately, happy to be 'home'. Natasha, Ellie, and Steve exited the plane slower. "So I'm gonna go check in on Skye if you want to see her," Ellie said to Natasha. The Russian needed no second invitation and rushed off the plane. Ellie gave a laugh and started to follow her off. "You coming? Skye's one of the family too. She'd love to meet you, especially after she finds out what you told me."

"If you're okay with that, yeah," Steve said.

Ellie led Steve off the plane. "Rumor has it, Peggy Carter created this bunker back when SHIELD first started out," Ellie said, looking around again.

"Maybe they're actually going back to basics and the original intent behind all this," Steve said distantly.

"Maybe," Ellie said uneasily. From what she heard on her last trip here, she doubted it.

"Captain Rogers," a man said, coming up to them. "I wanted to introduce myself. "I'm Sam Koenig."

"It's nice to meet you, Sam. Please, call me Steve."

"I just wanted to say that it's a real honor… my grandfather Eric used to tell all us little Koenigs about you," Sam said, extending his hand.

"I remember Eric Koenig," Steve said in recognition. "He finally got someone to marry him? And grandkids?"

"A whole group of us, including my brother named after him. He would have loved to meet you. He … he died when SHIELD fell. Killed by Grant Ward."

Coulson came bustling in, looking down at a stack of papers in his hands. "Thanks for the pickup assist Ellie," he said without looking up. "Probably could have pulled it off without you but it's always nice to get a hand from the Sentinel."

He looked up and paled when he spotted Natasha, who stood waiting for them, and Steve. Natasha actually shook with rage while Steve paled significantly. Koenig saw the looks on their faces and made a hasty exit. Coulson took two steps towards an exit before Natasha grabbed him. She threw him into a wall, tears shone in her eyes. "Do you have _any_ idea of what you did to him? I should kill you for real right now just for that. He practically tore himself apart while you and Fury laughed at your little joke to bring the Avengers together."

"I didn't laugh," Coulson choked out. "I died for real."

"Oh for a few seconds?" Natasha spat.

"For days," Coulson said. "I stayed dead for days. Fury resurrected me."

Natasha's eyes widened as she let her former boss go, then let out a string of curses in Russian. She pulled out a phone and tapped a few characters in before facing Coulson again. "You're explaining this to all of us in full when the others get here."

Coulson sighed and looked at Ellie. "Why would you ever tell them?"

"I didn't tell them," Ellie said. "They simply came along."

"They weren't supposed to know." Coulson noted.

"You remember that time where you stepped in it and I covered your ass? I never told anyone. Not even Fury." Ellie said. "Secrets only are there when there's a good reason to keep it. There's no good reason for this secret."

"Fine, I see your point" Coulson said sheepishly. "Sorry again, for stepping in it."

"I don't do front page news, Coulson," Ellie said. "You should know that more than most."

"We know, that's why Fury always said that he wouldn't consider you for the Avengers Initiative," Coulson said with a small smile. "Course, given your recent reveal of your past, I guess I understand your refusal a little more now."

"You could have been an Avenger?" Steve asked.

"It's a long story," Ellie said. "One Coulson doesn't know the whole version of and I can't tell without breaking International laws. Now, I'm off to go find Skye if you want to meet her before the other Avengers get here."

They found Skye in the kitchen, with Natasha Romanoff sitting on top of her. "Tasha, please let me up?" Skye begged the assassin.

Steve moved to help the younger woman, but Ellie stopped him. "Just watch," Ellie said with a smirk. She scanned the room and noted with a certain degree of satisfaction that everyone watching looked slightly terrified of Natasha.

"You learned this move years ago, Skye. We both know you can do it." Skye immediately shifted her hips and pulled one of her legs through the hole that the movement created. She wrapped the leg around Natasha's knee and rolled the soldier over. Natasha escaped from the trap quickly and gave Skye an assist getting back on her feet. "Good job. Though you're a little slow on the uptake."

"Yeah, well, as usual, I didn't expect to be jumped while pouring my morning coffee," Skye retorted.

"Your enemies aren't going to wait for you to finish your breakfast before they attack you," Natasha lectured.

"You are so exasperating," Skye said, rolling her eyes, then hugged Natasha tightly. "I missed you so much."

"You smell like coffee," Natasha said. Skye laughed and the two broke apart, spotting the other agents staring at them. Thankfully, they all seemed to have the good sense to look away.

"Are we okay?" Skye asked Natasha.

"I'm not happy that you didn't tell us, but I guess I can understand your logic," Natasha said gruffly.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you." Skye said, "I guess I got caught up in it all and for a little while no one got their feelings hurt."

Ellie spotted one of the agents that she knew. "Hey Mack." she greeted.

"Hey," Mack said in his very deep voice. The tension in the room broke. "I'm, uh, just headed for the garage." Instantly all the other agents seemed to all gain the _absolutely brilliant idea_ to leave the Mess at once and nearly stampeded out the door. Ellie spotted Hartley smiling at her briefly as she sped out. Ten seconds later, they were the only three left in the room.

"I hadn't heard from you in awhile," Natasha said. "I began to worry that you died."

Ellie snorted and Natasha turned to look inquisitively at her. "That's because she very nearly did," Ellie said. It still made her angry that Skye didn't inform her of what happened with Quinn until a few weeks ago.

Natasha looked back at Skye with the same look she used when interrogating someone. "I took two to the stomach last year," Skye admitted. Natasha's eyebrows raised at the news. "It... there wasn't anything anyone could do… and there's this drug that they used to revive Coulson and he used it on me."

"Scared the crap out of all of us," came a voice, and Ellie realized one other person remained in the room. She thought his name was Trip.

Skye lit up the way she did on Christmas morning. "Ooo! Trip! Trip, this is Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers, this is Antoine Triplett. And I'm Skye." Skye blushed, realizing that she needed to introduce herself as well.

"It's nice to meet you both," Steve said kindly. "Skye, I've heard a lot about you, both from Ellie and Natasha."

"My grandfather told me a lot about you, sir, if you don't mind me saying," Trip said. "Gabe Jones?"

Steve smiled wider then he had smiled in Ellie's presence yet. Even wider than the smiles he displayed in television interviews in the days before SHIELD fell, when he helped to set up the Smithsonian Exhibit. "Oh man, of course I know Gabe. He saved our necks quite a few times during the war. I never expected to find someone in that prison who spoke both French and German but he got those tanks working and got us out of there. I'd fight beside him any of day of the week. He and Dernier both were good in a fight, but also great entertainment beside you at a campsite. They seemed pretty close during the war. Of course, I'm sure Jacques just liked the fact that someone spoke French."

Trip nodded. "I knew him well. Uncle Jacques emigrated to the States after and moved in next door to Grandpa Gabe. All of the Commandos frequently visited, even Aunt Peggy would come by when she could a spare moment away from SHIELD. Not a single one of them ever left his side during the Civil Rights movement, but Jacques always spoke out in favor of Grandpa Gabe the loudest.

"The both of them caught a fair bit of trouble for it too. The Klan didn't like the idea of a black man being a Howling Commando. They'd trash his house, beat him up, put flaming crosses on his lawn. Uncle Jacques always kept an eye out and knew who to call on the police force to sort them out. Enough cops back then were World War II vets to know that Jacques and Gabe were Howling Commandos, and knew they sacrificed enough for their country. Still, Uncle Jacques never let my grandfather or his wife and kids go anywhere without protection until things settled down. He was even my father's godfather."

"Sounds like the pair of them got into trouble together all their lives," Steve said, just a touch emotionally.

"Yes sir, right up until the end. I'll never forget the look on Uncle Jacques' face when my grandfather died. He said that every time a Commando died hurt, but he never understood your rage at Sergeant Barnes' death until Grandpa Gabe died."

"They were both good men," Steve said a little stiffly.

"I still have a lot of his stuff from the old days if you want to take a look later," Tripp said.

"I'd like that," Steve said wistfully. Trip went out the door, obviously off to fulfill SHIELD duties.

"So, properly now, Uncle Steve, this is Skye. Skye's our little sister and the one who taught Tasha how to hack."

Steve shook Skye's hand again. "I hope you know that you saved everyone's lives when HYDRA came out of the shadows. If Nat hadn't been able to track down the file origins, we never would have solved it in time to stop Project Insight, then millions of people would have been killed."

Skye shrugged off the compliment, "Tasha's pretty smart. I'm sure she could have picked up enough of it on her own."

"Skye's pretty much better than than any hacker I've ever met. One time when we all got drunk on this Russian Vodka, we dared her to hack into Tony's personal drives at SI."

"How long did it take?" Steve asked. Skye went so red that Ellie feared that she might actually pass out.

"Oh, about thirty seconds," Natasha said with a laugh.

"Five minutes, thirty-eight seconds, Tasha. No hacker in the world could ever hack a place like SI in thirty seconds. Hacking into SHIELD took longer. Took me a couple hours the first time and more like forty-five minutes the second."

"You hacked into SHIELD?" Steve asked.

Skye smiled back at him. "I used to believe that all information should be accessible to everyone. I didn't like secrets,"

"I can understand that sentiment," Steve said, gaining a dark look. "What made you change your mind? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

Skye looked a little uncomfortable and Ellie didn't blame her. She did get some weird looks when she told people about the details surrounding her birth and being dropped off at the orphanage.

"I first started learning how to hack because the only record of me before I got dropped off at an orphanage in Hell's Kitchen was a redacted SHIELD file," Skye said. "Hold on, did you say 'Uncle Steve'?" Skye asked in shock.

"Steve knows my father. They were best friends growing up."

"You don't mean…" Skye started.

Ellie nodded. "The Winter Soldier, my father, is Bucky Barnes. Steve and I are gonna go and try to hunt him down. Get him back."

"Wow…. That's … wow."

"Yeah," Ellie said with a smile. "It's not every day that you find out that your father is an assassin brainwashed by HYDRA."

"I guess not," Skye said lightly.

It took a few hours, but the other Avengers finally arrived on the base. Ellie met them in the hanger with Natasha and Skye. All three of them wanted to be there for Clint when he found out the truth about Coulson, and none of them knew how the archer would react.

"Pandora! Widow! New person!" Stark said as he exited the plane.

"Stark, this is Skye." Natasha said with a smirk. "Skye, I suppose it's time that you met Tony Stark in person. You've certainly hacked his servers enough times."

Stark's eyes widened. "You're – you're … but you're so young! What are you, twelve?"

Skye smiled broadly. "I was eighteen the first time I hacked your systems," she said. "Seven years ago."

"You want to ditch SHIELD and work for SI?" Stark offered, clearly impressed.

"No," the intensity of the three voices that answered him loud enough that Tony took a step back.

"Chill, chill," he said, raising his hands in surrender towards Ellie, Natasha, and Clint who now joined them.

"She hacked SHIELD from a laptop and free public wifi, Stark," Natasha boasted. "She's way too good for SI."

Stark's eyes went wide. "Don't you need a physical connection to hack SHIELD?" he asked curiously. "You have to show me how you did that."

"Most people do, but I found a hole in their RSA implementation that I exploited. It took me a few weeks to find it, but once I found it, it only took a few hours for me to hack in." Skye's eyes narrowed. "It's patched now, if you're thinking what I think you are."

"I'm not sure how to feel right now," Stark said, uncharacteristically speechless. "I think… is this how everyone else feels when they meet me?" He gaped at Skye wordlessly.

"Thank God, there's someone in this world who can actually shut him up," Bruce said, exiting the plane with a patient smile. "Hey Natasha. Nice seeing you again, Ellie."

"Bruce, this is Skye. Skye, this is Bruce Banner."

Skye's eyes went wide. "Holy shit, FitzSimmons are gonna freak."

Bruce stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Well, that's certainly not a reaction I'm used to getting. I assume you mean Drs. Fitz and Simmons of SHIELD?"

Skye nodded. "Anyway, it's really nice to meet you. And thanks for New York."

Bruce blushed. "Thanks, I guess."

"Barton, Banner, Stark," Steve greeted gruffly, entering the room.

"Everything ready?" Natasha asked. Clint immediately tensed, picking up on the subtle tone of his partner.

"Everything?" Clint asked.

"Meeting with the director," Natasha said. "We're sorry about this, Clint." Natasha said.

"What? What are you talking -"

"Hello Clint," came a voice. All three male Avengers froze as they turned to the voice. Clint paled significantly before drawing an arrow and aiming it at Coulson's heart.

"What the hell kind of a joke is this, Tasha?" Clint shouted, "Coulson died before New York. I should know. I killed him."

"Fury brought him back, after five days," May said from behind them.

"And why should I believe you?" Clint yelled. "If he brought him back after five days, why didn't he ever tell us?"

"Because I'm a coward," Coulson said quietly. "When I woke up again, and Fury told me that you all thought I died, that you had thought that I had been dead for months, I didn't know how to tell you that I survived my death. It took me a long time before I figured out that Fury lied to me. He told me that I died for a few seconds. It took me almost a year to find out that I stayed dead for days, not just the few seconds they told me."

Clint immediately shook his head in anger and walked off. Natasha and Ellie immediately followed him, and Skye followed suit, looking apologetic.

They found their way to Skye's room and locked the door. They talked and argued, yelled and cried, catching up on each others' lives for a long time. After a year apart, it took a long time for them to get caught up on the goings on in each others lives. That combined with Skye's silence over the last six months, and it took quite a while before any of them stopped talking. Eventually, things wound down. While Clint was upset that Skye never told them, none of them could easily forget that Skye talked Clint down from a metaphorical ledge after New York and the guilt from Coulson's death. She and Natasha both brought him back to himself. Plus, none of them could deny that they didn't understand wanting to tell someone something classified, and Fury, apparently knowing Skye's associations, passed on a message to her that she couldn't tip her family off.

A knock at the door jolted them into the little world they created between them. "Skye, Coulson needs you," May said through the door. Skye tensed up.

"Skye what's wrong?" Clint asked, immediately concerned.

"I'm fine," she said quickly. "I just need to go talk to someone."

"Stop," Clint said. "Don't lie to me. I know that look. That's the look you used to get when we would ask you to talk about foster care. What's going on?"

Clint sat next to Skye who seemed to curl into herself on the couch wrapping both of her arms around her to comfort herself. Natasha and Ellie both sat by Skye's feet, each holding one to try and remind her of their steady presences, supporting her without judgement.

"It's nothing," Skye said, clearly trying to shrug it off. "AC just wants me to go and talk to Ward."

Ellie stilled. "There's more to it than what you've told us, isn't there."

Skye nodded. "I sorta fell in love with…" she said, tears welling in her eyes. "I fell in love with the lie that he told. After SHIELD fell, when we weren't sure if we would survive the coup, I kissed him. And then he killed one of the Koenigs." Clint very slowly leaned her against him so he could support her but Skye wouldn't notice. Tears now streamed down her cheeks. "After HYDRA came out and Ward still acted like he … like he stood with SHIELD, most of the team went off trying to save as much of SHIELD as possible. With just Ward, Eric Koenig, and I on the base things were quiet and tense, and then I found Eric's body and I just knew..." Tears streamed down her face. Clint held Skye loosely in his arms. "I had to go with Ward and pretend that I didn't know what happened so that he didn't kill me. Coulson came and got me a few hours later," she said. "Then a couple days later we faced off with Ward and Garrett at Cybertek and… he told me… that maybe he should just take what he wanted," Skye said the last part very quietly.

Ellie froze and stopped breathing. Clint clutched Skye tighter, horror in his eyes that shone with tears.

Natasha's face went white. "And Ward is on this base right now?" she said, low and dangerous. Ellie desperately wanted to take Skye away from SHIELD and never let them near her again. "And Coulson wants you to question him?

Skye shrugged, eyes fixed to the floor. "He refuses to talk to anyone else," she whispered. Natasha grinned, like a cat that just captured a mouse.

"We'll take care of him," Tasha practically growled.

"You shouldn't feel the need to… take care of me." Skye looked down at her hands and worried her hands so hard Ellie thought they might bruise.

"Hey." Ellie's voice gave no room for debate in its bark. Skye broke her gaze from her hands and looked up at her. "Keep the faith," she said more forcefully than usual.

Skye nodded and looked down, at her hands, going back to worrying them. Clint hugged her tightly. "You're worth loving, Skye," he said quietly. "Sometimes I know that it's easy to forget that with your childhood, but please remember that for us. I don't know what any of us would do if anything happened to you."

"So, it's decided then?" Ellie asked the other two master assassins. "We kill him?"

"Oh yeah," Clint said marching out. "Just tell us where Vault D is, Skye."

"I know where it is. Skye showed me last time," Ellie said. The other two looked at her. "She didn't tell me anything else!"

She led them down the hall and pulled open the door to Vault D. "What the hell is going on?!" Coulson roared.

"I thought it was fairly obvious, Coulson." Natasha said coldly. "We're going to kill Grant Ward"

"He's fairly well connected," Coulson hedged.

"What if we just maimed him... like, a little bit?" Clint asked.

"No maiming," Coulson said.

"Too late!" Clint said and they ducked inside. Clint pulled a device out of his pocket and stuck it to the door. Ellie heard the locking mechanism slip into place. "Courtesy of Stark," he explained to Ellie.

"How generous," Ellie said viciously.

They rushed down the stairs and Ellie opened the barrier. The man behind it, Ward, stood up.

"Ward," Clint greeted.

"Barton," Ward said. Clint immediately hauled off and punched him.

"This is gonna be about the HYDRA thing," Ward said, spitting blood out of his mouth.

"Think again, jackass," Clint snapped, punching the man in the solar plexus. "This is about Skye."

"Yeah? Did you call dibs?" Ward asked.

Ellie angrily put her hand on Ward's shoulder and _squeezed_ as hard as she could. Ward absolutely howled in pain as he lost the ability to stand due to the pain. "She's our baby sister you jackass," Ellie growled. "You aren't going to even think of her, much less get near her ever again. You aren't ever going to see her again."

"Yeah?" Ward ground out. "Cause that's one choice piece of -" Natasha grabbed his foot and his ankle and wretched in just the right way to rupture the man's Achilles. They heard banging on the door as Coulson and the rest of SHIELD tried to get the door open.

Ward breathed a couple of times, getting his bearings. "You know she kissed me? She wants me. She practically told me that she does."

Clint grabbed his uninjured leg and pulled as hard as he could. Ward screamed as his hip dislocated.

"I'll find her," Ward gasped. All of his smug smoothness gone. "I'll find her and I'll do things to her that will make her beg for death," he spat. "And when I've used her up, I'll kill her in the most painful way imaginable."

Clint went red and took several shots at Ward's ribs before Coulson and several SHIELD agents broke in and pulled them all off of Ward. Medical personnel surrounded Ward and they rushed his semi-conscious form out the door.

"What the hell were you thinking? He's our prisoner. There are rules!" Coulson lectured.

"Spare us the lecture, Coulson," Clint spat. "Those rules don't apply to us. We're all spies and assassins."

"We still needed information from him." Coulson said.

"From what I heard, you weren't getting anywhere with him and he's pretty low-level anyway," Clint retorted.

"So what, you just decided to beat him to death?"

"No, we beat him because he promised to rape our little sister. Go watch the security feed, Coulson. The man's a sociopath. He shouldn't be here. You can't keep him here forever. Transfer him to a supermax, where he belongs."

"Well he isn't here anymore," Coulson said with a heavy sigh. "For the record, I didn't know about what he said."

"Well, as the Director of SHIELD, you should know. Not knowing can get people killed, or worse," Natasha said quietly. "Surely you wondered why Ward would only talk to Skye? Why didn't you look into why he wanted to speak to her of all people?"

"I've had a few other things on my mind," Coulson said. "I wasn't expecting a bunch of people to beat him up."

"Justifiably!" Ellie retorted. "I know all about you Coulson. I know about where you take your vacations, the people that _you_ call your family. This. This is my family. And now you know what happens when someone threatens my family. Don't you dare tell me there are rules when HYDRA is involved."

"Look, Coulson. I wanted to… I just… I am happy that you're alive," Clint said. "We all are, and we don't want to cause you any more trouble, but the four of us only have each other. We all come from pretty dark backgrounds where we don't really fit anywhere else. And some of that's by choice, but for a lot of it..."

"People don't really understand us, except for each other," Natasha added.

"So we support each other in the good times," Ellie said.

"And in the bad times, watch out," Skye said from the stairs.

Coulson looked down at his phone. "Basic assessment is that you ruptured his achilles, dislocated his hip, broke four ribs, and broke his clavicle," Coulson said pinching his nose. "For what? For revenge?"

"Just watch the feed," Clint said. "Come find us when you find out what really happened."

"Come on," Skye said. "I think Hunter's cooking tonight and he's deceptively skilled." The others filed out and Skye stayed behind, "I need to talk to DC, but I'll meet you there."

The door closed. "It shouldn't be like this," Coulson raged. "We should be better. We need to be better."

Skye sighed, "Growing up, I - no one cared about me. I appreciate what SHIELD did for me, don't get me wrong, but it was lonely and hard. Most kids in the system live in seven or eight foster homes. A few are luckier and only live in two or three before they're adopted. I lived in twenty-eight foster homes by the time I turned sixteen. I never lived anywhere longer than six months at a time. Sometimes foster families are good, like the Brodys, but most foster parents are just in it for the money, and some of them are worse than that. And then came Ellie and Natasha and Clint, who gave me a place to stay, no judgments or questions asked. They took me in and gave me a safe place to sleep. Even after I aged out of the system, they insisted that I stay and by some miracle they stuck around after all this time. They'd say the same thing about me. When I say they're my family, I mean it, because they're all I've ever had."

With that, she went upstairs and joined her little family for their first dinner since the New Year's before Skye had been black bagged. There was an air of awkwardness at first between the Avengers and the SHIELD agents, especially since Clint and Bobbi had briefly dated a lifetime ago and it hadn't ended well, but eventually everyone got used to each other. Still, the Avengers presence did nothing to ease the tension between Bobbi and her now ex-husband Lance, or the tension between the Doctors Simmons and Fitz.

Stark seemed to take to Skye and both quickly became immersed in an in-depth discussion about network security and something called 'brute force infiltration' that even Natasha and Ellie could only partially follow. The rest of the group had no idea what either of them said. Fitz got pulled in with Mack regarding physical infiltration from an engineering standpoint.

Jemma immediately started talking with Banner on some technical bio-medical thing that Ellie probably could Google most of at some point if she could remember the terms, but Banner seemed perfectly happy discussing it with the ever-eager scientist, so they were left to their own devices. Steve and Trip seemed to be gathered in a corner, going over the 1940s technology that Trip had. Steve seemed to be in the middle of a story that involved the Howling Commando and Trip seemed to be eating up the information about his grandfather.

Bobbi, Natasha, and Ellie got pulled into a debate regarding deep cover assignments, which none of them remembered who started. The debate quickly devolved to the three of them arguing loudly in a variety of languages at random intervals. Clint, May, and Hunter started discussing knife technique of all things and eventually Clint challenged the two of them to a knife throwing contest on one of the back walls. Bobbi, Ellie, and Natasha got pulled in shortly thereafter, which drew the attention of the rest.

After Clint creamed them all (though Skye surprised them all by joining in and coming in behind Natasha and Ellie for fourth), Stark brought out wine from somewhere and they all lounged around, trading their best war stories.

"DC, come join us!" Skye called, spotting the Director coming in.

"DC?" Stark asked as Coulson entered the room.

Skye nodded. "He's way too cool to be 'Coulson' and he wouldn't let me call him 'Phil', so I called him AC for Agent Coulson. Now he's DC."

Stark lit up at this. "See!" he crowed. "Even Half-Byte knows that his first name is Agent!"

"Half-Byte?" Skye asked curiously.

"You're a tiny hacker genius. Of course you're Half-Byte."

Skye gave Tony a look for a second before returning to the conversation. "At least it wasn't a repeat of Budapest," Skye said to Natasha with a wide grin.

Bobbi's eyes furrowed. "Wait. There was something about that on the transcripts of the coms from the Attack on New York. How do _you_ know what happened in Budapest?"

Skye gave Bobbi a sly grin. "I was there."

"Wait. What happened in Budapest?" Mack asked. "SHIELD agents spent almost two years looking for reports from Strike Team Delta to figure out what that meant."

"It wasn't a SHIELD mission," Natasha said with an equally sly grin.

"Now you've got even me curious, love," Hunter said.

"We got married in Budapest," Natasha said, touching the arrow charm around her neck. She exchanged a loving glance with Clint and blushed, unused to being so open about their relationship.

"To each other?" May asked. Even she gaped at the news, Coulson too busy choking on his own spit to retort.

"Yup!" Skye chirped. Clint wove his fingers through Natasha's as they gazed at each other happily. "Then some home-grown terrorist blew up the block and Natasha and Ellie just _had_ to get involved."

"Only you would call helping people out of burning and collapsing buildings 'getting involved'," Ellie said with a grin. "Just because we tucked you away safe and you didn't get to see anything doesn't mean you should get all jealous about it."

"I don't understand, why get married in Budapest?" Coulson asked curiously.

Skye and Ellie looked at Natasha who groaned. "That is the absolute last time I let Clint play darts blindfolded on the World Map."

"Hey, I needed the practice!" Clint said. "And I aimed for Paris. That should count for something."

"I thought you never missed?"

"I happened to be practicing being upside-down and backwards, whilst being tied up by the ankles," Clint explained. "The target was about 100 feet away and I had been up there for an hour."

"Did Fury know about this?"

Natasha shrugged, "We never really asked him. We kind of assume so, since he sent us transport out of there."

"We need to leave soon," Steve reminded them. "If we're going to make our deadline tomorrow, that is."

"If Coulson doesn't mind, we'd like to stay behind," Natasha said.

"We want to teach Skye a few things before we leave ourselves," Clint added.

Skye groaned, "Clint, I already said 'no' to archery lessons. Just because I joined SHIELD and became all bad-ass doesn't mean that I want them now."

"Just the basics," Clint said. "It's good for you to retain a good working knowledge of all weapons."

"Weapons training with 'The World's Greatest Marksman', just what I've always wanted." Skye said dryly.

"You'll be training with me as well," Natasha said with a grin. "And this time I won't be holding back."

"I hate this family," Skye griped from where she sat Indian-style on the floor.

"You love us," Ellie said with a knowing grin. "But Steve's right, we need to go." She stood up and brushed off her pants.

"But… we can't leave Half-Byte behind! What do you say, kid, wanna join the Avengers?" Stark asked.

Coulson stiffened and Skye laughed. "I'm okay, Tony, but thanks for the offer."

"Yeah, well, you have my email if you ever need anything," Stark said.

Bruce and Jemma exchanged goodbyes and emails themselves. Steve and Trip already exchanged cell phone numbers. Slowly, members of both groups began filing out until Clint, Tasha, Skye, Ellie, and Steve were the only ones left.

"Take care of her, okay?" Ellie asked tearfully.

"Always," Clint said.

"Take care of each other," Ellie told Natasha.

"Just like Budapest," Tasha said quietly.

"Keep the faith," Ellie told Skye.

"Keep safe," Skye responded. "Find your father."

"You'll be the first to know when I do," Ellie said quietly. They embraced tightly, joined by Clint with a big goofy grin on his face.

"Can you make sure someone feeds Pizza Dog while I'm gone?" Clint asked Steve.

"I'll bring him to the Tower," Steve said. Finally, at long last the family parted ways.

Getting on Stark's plane, Ellie sighed as she stared out the window. Something big was coming. Something that felt off with SHIELD. She closed her eyes and broke concentration. She saw something. A communication. She filed it away as something to speak to Coulson about the next time she saw him. For now, she and her Uncle needed to take the time to track down her father.


	6. The Nonagenarian and the Name

It wasn't long until they landed in New York. "You okay?" Steve asked as Ellie continued to stare off into space.

"Hmm?" She blinked and saw the asphalt of the tarmac, realizing they were in New York. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said softly. "Just tired I guess."

"Use the plane for as long as you want kids, just remember that you pay for the damages," Stark said.

"You… don't have a problem with this?" Ellie asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Based on everything I've been told, HYDRA used you as weapons," Tony said. "Clint shared with me a couple things of information and both he and Steve say he didn't have any control over any of it… I'd be a little bit of a hypocrite if I blamed the gun instead of the shooter."

Ellie flinched at the implication, "No, he didn't have control over it," she said hollowly. "The look on his face as they wiped him told me that."

Tony looked absolutely horrified at the idea. "Yes," he said uncomfortably. "Well. Remember, if you break it, you buy it."

"So what's the plan?" Steve asked her.

Ellie sighed. "Well, I can't pilot for shit, how about you?" she asked.

"Not unless you want a crash landing," he quipped, "but I think I know a guy."

"How is it that every time I see you, you've got another gorgeous girl around?" a man asked an hour later, entering the plane. He wore a broad smile and his body language practically shouted 'easy-going'.

"Sam," Steve greeted. He bristled slightly at Sam inadvertently hitting on his niece. He already felt protective of her, but it helped to know that Sam was a good guy.

"What's the word, Cap? You get more info on Barnes?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, you could say that," Uncle Steve said lightly. "Sam, this is Ellie. Ellie, this is Sam Wilson."

"Nice to meet you," Sam said suspiciously. "Are you Steve's source?"

"I have an idea of how to track Bucky down. Something more efficient than checking out rumors on the Internet."

"Oh, I see how it is," Sam said glancing at Steve and gaining a tenser stance. "You a groupie? What makes you think that you know so much?"

Ellie grinned widely as she looked at Steve. "Go ahead," she said. "Tell him my full name. It's fun."

Sam's eyes furrowed as he looked at his friend. Steve looked at Ellie tenderly. "Sam, this is Ellie Barnes, Bucky's daughter."

Sam's mouth dropped as his eyes went wide, staring between Steve and Ellie. Ellie started giggling after a few minutes. "That's never going to get old." Steve was grinning too. "You did good work at the Triskellion," Ellie told Sam. "Glad that you had Uncle Steve's back."

"Yeah," Sam said distantly.

"So Steve said that you can fly this thing?" she pressed further.

"Yeah," Sam said in the same tone.

"You need me to slap you around a couple of times or are you going to be okay?" Ellie asked, standing and looking at Sam in concern.

Sam laughed. "I like her, Cap. You should keep her around."

"That's the plan," Steve said happily.

"You sure you're okay to fly?" Ellie asked suspiciously. "I've never heard of shock causing a traumatic brain injury, but I suppose there's a first time for everything."

"Sure, I just… I never expected someone so beautiful to be Steve's niece." Sam said, blushing.

"You ain't exactly been hit in the head with an ugly stick there Sam, but I appreciate the compliment," Ellie said.

"Where are we headed?" Sam asked.

"The Swiss Alps," Ellie said. "The last place the Howling Commandos were all together before HYDRA brainwashed my father and forced him to serve them."

Sam started pre-flight procedures. "So, out of curiosity, where did you get your intel?" he asked.

Ellie sighed. She felt no shame about the truth about her past or her powers, but she hated people's reactions to it. The looks of shock or pity mocked her. The looks of fear haunted her. Even those that went through horrible things in their lives, such as Remy and Wade looked at her with pity when she told them. She looked at Sam, gaging his reaction. "HYDRA used my father's DNA with a mutant's to create me. So I'm both enhanced and powered. Specifically, I can see data. Between that and having seen something like this before, I figured that I could help find my father."

"How long has it been since you've seen him?" Sam asked.

Ellie shrugged, masking her surprise that he hadn't reacted to the news. "HYDRA never really let me near him," she said in shock

"Sucks," Sam said as they all strapped in. "My dad died when I was a kid. I'm not saying it's exactly the same thing, but I get it."

Sam finished pre-flight and they took off. The three of them passed the time by exchanging stories: Ellie from her travels, Steve from the 40s, and Sam from his own childhood and experiences in the war. Steve was particularly interested in the stories that Ellie told of her and a very close friend of hers named Hank who had helped rescue her from HYDRA. He filed the name away for later.

Reaching the general location of where Bucky fell, they had a tougher time finding the exact location than actually landing the jet in a nearby clearing. Luckily, between Ellie and Steve they figured out the location within a few hours. They stood in two feet of snow, looking at the land in front of them. Everything changed here, some seventy years ago. "He wouldn't come looking for information down here," Ellie said. "There's no good visibility."

"He'd look for high ground," Steve said, nodding. "I think I know where he would go."

An hour and an insanely steep climb later, Ellie stood where her father had stood those long years ago.

"Wow," Ellie breathed in awe when she saw the view.

"You said it," Sam agreed.

"He was here, or someone was," Steve said, looking around at a series of footprints in the snow. Ellie looked at the tracks. From the way the snow compacted, it looked like someone crouched there for a long time. She crouched down herself and took a sniff. She smelled diesel and saw pine needles embedded in the compacted snow.

"He has a truck or hitchhiked with one for a time," Ellie said quietly. Steve looked at her questioningly. "His treads smell like gas from a truck. Probably a semi or something similar."

"If he's hitchhiking, he'll be switching rides frequently," Steve added. "His arm's a dead giveaway."

"No kidding. You can see that thing from space," Sam said.

"I'm going to go search for more clues. Don't fall off," Steve said.

"Don't worry, I've already ridden the Cyclone at Coney Island," Ellie snarked. "I don't feel like doing it again."

Steve stared at her. "Your father said something similar when we were up here," Steve said softly. His gaze distant and his eyebrows gently raised. Ellie wasn't sure if she should apologize before Steve seemed to come back to himself and he went off in search of clues.

Ellie looked at the vast expanse of mountains in the distance. Her father… this is where it all began. The fact that he fell here, that he almost died here, meant that she existed. She shivered a little at the thought as she shifted in the deep snow. Sam noticed and immediately took off his coat, placing it around her shoulders. "Chivalry will get you everywhere, Mr. Wilson," she said with a smirk.

"You're like the one girl that I can't use my friendship with Cap to impress, I've got to impress you somehow," Sam said cockily, taking a step behind her.

She couldn't help but stare at his face. It was so kind. She knew he went through hell during the war but somehow maintained some degree of innocence. She felt a sudden urge to preserve that innocence but she quickly squashed the urge. "What makes you think you're impressing me?" Ellie said.

Eventually, finding no other evidence of Bucky's presence, Sam and Ellie finally convinced Steve that they had to keep going. There were more places to check for Bucky and they couldn't stay there forever. On the flight to Berlin, Ellie explained her powers to Sam, who seemed to grasp the concept a little more than her Uncle did. "Damn, so why didn't we just stay in New York and let you just scan the entire world?" Sam asked.

"Proximity makes it easier for me to access the feeds," Ellie explained, "plus then it doesn't require me to wade through as much information. Then there's the fact that I can only take in so much information before my body reacts badly to the influx of information. Even if I'm concentrating and in control, the amount of data exchanged within my immediate vicinity is enough to get me pretty sick."

"So there are limits to your powers," Sam said.

"There are limits and drawbacks to all powers. Those of us with powers still follow the laws of physics to some degree. Chiefly that for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. For a lot of us, those reactions just tend to be internal."

"Man, there goes my dream of being able to fly without the jet pack," Sam said with a flirtatious smile.

"I know a guy who can fly. Jet packs are still pretty cool though," Ellie commented with a smile. She furrowed her brow at Steve who kept looking between the pair of them with an odd look on his face.

"You okay there Uncle Steve?" Ellie asked.

"Hmmm?" Steve asked.

"Everyone's a freaking space cadet this week," Ellie complained.

Steve looked upset, "it's nothing," he said gruffly.

Ellie smiled tightly at Sam, "excuse us, we'll get out of your hair during pre-flight."

"Cool," Sam said, getting back to work.

Ellie stood up and poked her uncle until he moved. "Let's go," she said.

"What?" Steve asked, trying to stop once they exited the cockpit.

"Come on," Ellie said. She walked him back until they got to the back of the plane. She shut the door to Stark's private cabin, rolling her eyes that a private cabin (complete with a large bed) even existed on the jet.

"Yes?" Steve asked.

"What's going on?" Ellie asked exasperation.

"I don't understand," Steve said, shifting uncomfortably.

"You've been staring at Sam and I for the last ten minutes like he's about to take me to the prom. Uncle Steve, we're just flirting."

Steve shifted slightly. "He's too old for you," he said finally.

Ellie crossed her arms, "what?"

"He's thirty-sevem. He's too old for you," Steve said finally.

Ellie froze for a second then cocked her head to the side and chuckled. "You're very sweet, you know that, right?"

"He's too old for you," Steve insisted.

"Uncle Steve, you know I'm thirty-seven, right?" Ellie asked curiously. "Born in 1977? I'm older than most of the Avengers. Given the amount of time HYDRA kept my father in cryo, I'm older than him, technically."

Steve rubbed the short hairs on the back of his head, subtracting 2014 from 1977. "You and Sam are the same age?"

"Yeah," Ellie said, her eyebrows raised and nodding. "I'll be thirty-eight in April."

They both sat down when Sam came over the intercom stating that they were ready for take off. "How do you feel about being older than your own father?" Steve asked.

"I got over it," Ellie said shortly. She looked up at She got up and went back up to the cockpit trying to make it clear in her body language not to follow her.

When they landed in Berlin, Ellie immediately led her two companions to a safe house she knew about so that she could sit down and work. Ellie sat down and scanned the plethora of cameras that existed in Berlin. Searching through Berlin for her father easier and harder than the Swiss Alps. On one hand, something that could be scanned existed, someone to search for in the crowd, but on the other the amount of data she needed to sort through took a lot of power to control. Ellie scanned fruitlessly for him, but she could only find a couple snapshots on Instagram of him that some teenager posted on a Captain America fan page.

"Anything?" Steve asked hopefully when she came into the kitchen and hour later. He handed her a bottle of water and an MRE they got from the plane.

"He was here a little more than a week ago. We're on the right track, but we missed him." Ellie sighed. "It looks like his programming is breaking down further though, which is good. He took out the active HYDRA base here."

"Bucky took out a HYDRA base?"

Ellie nodded. "Berlin is where they kept him in cryo between missions," she explained. "From the looks of things, he took out the entire building. Maybe a hundred agents dead?"

"Nice going, Bucky," Steve breathed.

"Are we sure this guy is going to be on our side when we find him?"

Steve and Ellie exchanged a look. "He'll be on my side," Ellie said.

"And what if he doesn't know about you? What if no one ever told him?" Sam asked.

"No one told him," Ellie said. "But he called me Becca the only time we ever met."

"And that helps us how?" Sam asked.

"Bucky had a sister named Rebecca Barnes, though everyone called her 'Becca'." Steve explained. "She died a few years ago, but if Bucky remembers any part of his childhood, he'd remember Becca." He turned to Ellie. "Come to think of it, you do look quite a bit like her." Ellie beamed.

"There's still a chance that he won't remember," Sam said. "He didn't remember you."

"And we're prepared for that possibility," Steve said softly as Ellie looked away, blinking away her tears. "But we need to try."

Sam regarded them both carefully, "I know we do. I just want you two to be prepared if the worst-case scenario comes to pass."

Ellie nodded stiffly. Sam started looking through cabinets and such. "You said that this was your friend's safe house?" Sam asked. He gave Ellie a curious look as he stepped aside to show the freezer, which contained a large bottle of vodka, two guns and a large collection of knives, as well as the cache of Raman packages in the cupboard next to it.

"Wade's a little... eccentric," Ellie said. "He got volunteered for a program called Weapons X that made him… more. He kind of lost his mind and went weapons-happy. Along with those, I also know of two guns that he stores under the couch. Food-wise, there are also several cans of Pringles in the bathroom along with a bag full of meat sticks that can be eaten. Or there's a good place down the street we can get decent food to-go."

"Do you often live like this?" Steve asked.

"Why Uncle Steve," Ellie responded, a touch sharply. "If I didn't know any better, I'd start to think that you disapproved of me living this kind of lifestyle."

"Well no, it's just- I mean- why would you _want_ to live like this?" Steve finally asked.

Ellie stared at her uncle for a minute. She turned around, facing away from him and Sam, and slowly pulled her hair back and secured it with a hand. For a second, Steve didn't understand why his niece had turned around and shown him the back of her neck. For a second, he didn't understand what the black marks were. Then it hit him. Writing.

"What the hell?" Sam asked, shocked.

"What is that?" Steve breathed, involuntarily reaching out to touch the lettering. It didn't feel like it raised or like any kind of temporary material that he knew about. Instead the skin felt like some hybrid of skin and sandpaper. The letters he touched, however, bothered him more. 'LE41977M' stood out starkly against Ellie's pale skin. "Who did this?" he demanded.

She glanced over her shoulders. Her uncle looked about a second away from destroying every HYDRA base on the planet with his bare hands. Sam didn't appear to be far off. His eyes darkened and his lips thinned. "HYDRA did it to me," Ellie said softly. "When I fourteen."

"Why?" Steve snapped.

"Because it's my name," Ellie said, looking down in shame. They stared at her. She could feel them both staring at her neck. She turned and grinned grimly. "What, you think HYDRA really Ellie or Eleanor or some similar name? You think that HYDRA would think of me as a person? My father and I were property, nothing more. So are all 'Assets' to HYDRA. This isn't like SHIELD." She unsecured her hair and let it fall back down. "I am a genetically modified experiment. I don't even know my birthday because they didn't write it down. I think my birthday is April 19th, 1977, but I'm not sure."

Steve looked saddened by that. "I'm sorry," he said.

Ellie snapped back to reality. "Hey Uncle Steve, no worries. We're both out and soon HYDRA will be gone. My point is that that I don't have a context of what living normally is and I prefer to live my life helping people to atone for my sins."

"What does the LE stand for?" Steve asked. He looked like he didn't want to know the answer.

"Live Experiment," Ellie said. "The M stands for Mutant." She saw how tense and angry Steve looked. "I think we can all agree that HYDRA is pretty heartless, Uncle Steve, and once we find… Dad, we can all take them on together."

"They should never…. I'm so sorry," Steve said looking downcast and placing his hand over hers.

"You're not allowed to be sorry," Ellie said gently. "You couldn't control of it, being a Capsicle when I was born, and you didn't even know I existed until a few weeks ago."

"That's awful," Sam said softly, previously speechless.

"We all know plenty of people with horrible names," Ellie said defensively. "Some of them being named by actual parents. At least I have a reason. HYDRA saw me as a weapon. Nothing more, nothing less."

"I promise you, we'll find your father," Steve said evenly.

"I know we will," Ellie said. "Now I think we should all get some rest. We need to fly to London tomorrow and with all the tech there, using my powers to this extent can leave me pretty drained."

Steve could hardly believe that the U-Boat that the Howling Commandos practically sank during the war found its way to the Natural History Museum in London. He stood, almost fascinated at the U-Boat as tourists circled around it, oblivious to the fact that Captain America stood in their midst.

London always gave Ellie a bit of trouble, but she knew it they needed to be there, just in case. As the most surveilled city in the world and easy for her to grab feeds. Conversely, as the most surveilled city in the world, she sometimes struggled to keep the data flowing at a manageable pace. She found more evidence of Bucky being there, just a short seven days ago. Knowing that they needed a break, they all tried to think of where they could go to take a load off. Getting an idea, Ellie closed her eyes and found what she wanted. "I have something to show you Uncle Steve," she said warmly.

Ellie smiled gently as they took a seat at the bar. Due to the fact that Captain America first recruited the Howling Commandos there, the bar owners restored it to it's former glory after the air raid that destroyed it towards the end of the war, and the owners kept it the way Steve probably remembered it, though the shrine to the Howling Commandos, complete with a Captain America tour poster with a large "CANCELED" stamped across it, was new. She and Sam took seats at the bar while Steve looked around, lost in time as he stared at photos of the Howling Commandos. She knew the look on her Uncle's face. The look of longing. The look of a desire so strong you couldn't breathe. The Howling Commandos were a distant memory to be taught in history classes these days and the fight against HYDRA finished.

Ellie danced and sang loudly with Sam along with the player piano, to some song _about_ a piano player. She spotted Steve looking at them a little wistfully. Ellie made her way over to him, breathless and red-cheeked, her eyes sparkling. "Hey, you okay?" she asked.

"Just thinkin' 'bout the first time we came to this bar," Steve said quietly. "Jim, Gabe, Dum Dum and the other Commandos. Your father tried to schmooze Peggy but she shot him down."

"From what I've learned from the history books, he was quite the ladies' man," Ellie said conversationally. "I'm guessing that he didn't take Carter shooting him down very well?"

"Bucky never knew what hit him. But the reports in the history books were pretty exaggerated. He never went steady with anyone. He didn't know anyone that he wanted to marry. He just liked to take women out and show them a good time."

"No girlfriend in High School?"

Steve shook his head, "He pinned a girl," he remembered. "Her name was Rose, but her family left for California a few weeks after that, during our Sophomore year."

"Did you ever find out what happened to her?" Ellie asked. Steve shook his head. "Too bad," Ellie said quietly. "Did he want kids?"

"He's going to love you," Steve said quietly.

"That's not an answer," Ellie said.

Steve sighed. "Things were very different back then. Your grandfather walked out on your father and their family because he was ashamed that he couldn't provide for his family. Our mothers got to know each other at the factory, that's how Bucky and I got to be so close. We would hang out after school and both of our families would eat together to save money. Food stamps for two families went further than food stamps for one. Bucky didn't want to start a family until he knew that he could support them."

Ellie suddenly felt very vulnerable, but she stamped the feeling down as hard as she could. "Guess it's kind of a moot point. I'm here and I'm raised. He doesn't need to recognize me as his daughter if he doesn't want to." She winced. That came out more vulnerable than she intended.

Steve looked at her, hesitated a moment, then hugged her tightly. "Bucky's going to love you, trust me." Ellie wanted to laugh. Asking her for that was a little like asking for the moon. But she hugged him back. Steve loved her, and Natasha, Clint, and Skye loved her. Four people more than she ever thought she would get or deserved.

"Thanks, Uncle Steve," she said thickly. It seemed that she teared up a lot these days.

"You okay?" Sam asked when she finally made her way back over to him.

"Yeah, I just," she nodded at her uncle. "I feel bad for him. It sucks when ..."

"When you're the one left behind," Sam finished. "I can't imagine what it would be like if I was in the position."

"We all lose people in this business," Ellie said, cocking her head slightly as she stared at a photo of her father with his best friend. She smiled slightly, her eyes sparkling with tears.

"You sound like you speak from experience," Sam said, leaning in too.

Ellie nodded. "There were others in the HYDRA project with me. Myself and nine others grew up together and trained to be HYDRA soldiers, and I'm the only one left standing. I may not be a man out of time, but I know what it means to be the last one at the party."

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "After Riley died, it felt like there was a whole part of me that went missing. I thought leaving the Air Force would help ease the pain or at least not remind me of him so much but it feels like all I can think of is that he..."

"He isn't here to enjoy it?" Ellie suggested, looking at him. He had come even closer now, his face close enough that she could see every detail of his lips.

"Yeah," Sam breathed, his eyes dilating slightly.

"Sam? Ellie asked quietly, inching closer.

Sam suddenly leaned in and kissed her. It felt nice. There weren't any fireworks, but Ellie didn't really believe in those. His kiss was warm and tender and kind. Full of potential. The kiss contained a hint of a promise of something more, something further that made Ellie want to deepen the kiss but she held back. Every time she leapt into a relationship, the guy almost always turned tail and ran once he found out about her past. And while Sam already knew a good deal of it and knew about her powers, he found out about the lot in the last week. He seemed fine with the idea, but Ellie reminded herself that knowing someone with powers was very different than dating someone with powers. Ellie couldn't help the feeling of doubt and dread growing in the pit of her stomach. Something told her that she would regret kissing Sam Wilson.


	7. The Mystic and the Magic

Breaking off the kiss, Ellie tried not to blush as she looked away from Sam. "That was..." Sam started. "That was nice." Sam said.

Ellie nodded, "Yeah," she agreed softly, cursing her hormones. They raged at her, pure instinct driving her to taste and touch more. To grab and feel and pull and rub. But she squashed those instincts down. Her normal hookup didn't have any consequences if she cut and run. This would.

"Would you like another?" Sam asked cheekily.

Ellie laughed, the previous tension broken. "Maybe some other time when my Uncle isn't watching," she said nervously.

Sam groaned. "This is not what I pictured when I got that call from Steve," he said.

"Regretting it?" Ellie asked cautiously. "Because I've had a beer, and while one beer hardly touches me, we can always forget this ever happened."

Sam raised his eyebrows at her and grinned. "You kiss a man like that and expect him to forget it? Oh no, that one's going in the vault."

"Looking for a sequel?" Ellie asked flirtatiously.

"Oh, I'm planning on not just one," Sam said, taking a step forward so that Ellie could see his finely defined chest beneath the tee-shirt he wore. It seemed quite… touchable.

Ellie blushed. "We should, uhhhh, we should get back to Uncle Steve," Ellie said quickly. "Yeah, back to Steve. That'd be good. We should get to the safe house. We've got an early day tomorrow."

"More security feeds to scan?" Sam asked. Ellie realized that it had probably been a little bit boring for the pair over the last couple of days. While she shifted through security feeds, they didn't have a whole lot to do. Maybe it was time to take a different approach.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"Really?" Sam's eyebrows raised and his eyes widened.

"I think we've been chasing for long enough. We checked the three largest HYDRA bases during World War II, as well as other locations that the Commandos went to and ..." She tugged at her hair nervously. She had a suggestion but didn't know how Sam would take it. Hell, she had no idea how Steve would take it.

"We're all frustrated," Steve said. Both Ellie and Sam jerked away from either other and blushed, realizing that Steve probably knew what had occurred.

"He's not staying in one place as long as I thought he would," Ellie said, slowly, trying to stop blushing. "I thought we could catch up with him."

"You said previously that you've seen this before?" Steve asked.

Ellie nodded, remembering snippets of events that had been buried in her mind long ago. "It took longer for him. He… two years passed before he remembered more than just his name. I don't understand why Bucky's not compelled to stay in one place."

"It's not the same, though. Steve triggered him," Sam noted him. "He started to remember, first on the bridge and then on the helicarrier."

"With someone who knew him before may… it may speed up the process," Ellie said. She furrowed her eyebrows, tapping a finger against her jaw and thinking hard. Suddenly an idea sprang into her mind "I think we need to go to my psychic."

"Wait, you believe in psychics?" Sam said, suspicion in his voice.

"Psychics are real," Ellie revealed. "And Nessa's the most accurate psychic that I've ever met."

"Is she like some kind of a palm reader?" Steve asked incredulously. "Like a Carney on Coney Island?"

"Nah," Ellie. "Real psychics are a little different." She grinned. It had been a while since she had visited Nessa. It would be good to see her and she could scan the security feeds while Sam and the Captain were occupied with things to do.

Ellie sat up with Sam on the flight to Greece. She asked him to teach her a little bit about flying airplanes and he easily acquiesced. After landing, Ellie made a direct path to her destination, knowing it would be futile to scan the security fees before talking to Nessa. She knew, however, that talking to Nessa would be harder and more complicated than just going up to a commercial storefront psychic with a lighted LED sign advertising services.

Most powered people didn't _want_ other people knowing about them and hid in plain sight. They were members of neighborhood watches and congregations of all kinds of religions. They were teachers and dog walkers and even a few CEOs and billionaires. They kept their abilities lower than the down low. Nessa, for example, remained hidden from most of the world as she was often plagued by what she saw. It was because of this that had Ellie leading Steve and Sam into a tiny local shop located on a backstreet of a backstreet that only locals knew about.

"Kosta, o fílos mou, pós eísai1?" Ellie greeted warmly. The tiny Greek man she addressed bent over with his back to her, serving hummus, olives, and pita to some old ladies.

Kosta straightened, turned around, grinned broadly, and threw his arms wide in the space of half a second. "Ellie, agápi mou, den eícha dei se tóso kairó! Eímai kalá.2" He came up to her and hugged her tightly before kissing her on both of her cheeks. He then spotted Sam and Steve. He switched to English. "You have brought friends!" He gestured with his hands towards a table in the corner. "Come, come. You must eat. I have some pita that just came out of the oven and my homemade hummus."

"So, what brings you, your lover, and Captain America to my little town?" Kosta asked.

"We're looking for someone," Ellie said evenly. Sam looked shocked at what Kosta had called him but Ellie just smiled. Nessa knew a lot of things. Nessa saw a lot of things. Seeing all of that, she often needed a sounding board and Kosta had always been the perfect man for that job. "I wish to know if it I could ask some questions."

Kosta nodded as he busied himself with preparing a bowl of homemade hummus and a plate of pita. "My Nessa slept well last night. Once you finish your food, you may go up. She will be expecting you."

"Thank you, Kosta," Ellie said.

"You saved my Nessa from those bandits years ago and have kept an eye on her ever since. As I have previously told you, it is I that is in your debt," Kosta said.

"So we're meeting a psychic in a little Greek cafe?" Steve asked.

"Technically, we're meeting her over the little Greek cafe," Ellie pointed out. "After the War, the normals started the CIA. The world started operating on covert terms. Everything became spies and secrets, but they didn't realize one thing."

"Which was?" Sam asked.

"Our history, the history of those with powers, originates in covert operations and secret keeping," Ellie said with a smile. "We can hide entire groups of people without normals knowing anything at all. They have no _idea_ how many powered people are out there."

Sam and Steve both exchanged glances but said nothing. After they cleaned their plates, Ellie placed several bills on the table. "Come on," she said with a smile.

Ellie led them through the kitchen to a set of stairs. Climbing the stairs, a voice called out before they even reached the door, "Come on in, Ellie."

Ellie smiled and opened the door and walked in, greeting a heavily pregnant, barefoot woman who Ellie knew looked more like a soccer mom than a psychic. "Nessa, how have you been?"

Ellie glanced back and saw both Steve's and Sam's eyebrows heavily furrowed. Ellie didn't blame them. Nessa looked like any other woman – a football mom, except for the fact that her eyes were cloudy and sightless.

"Steven Rogers, I know your mother raised you to clean your plate. In this house the rules aren't dissimilar. You eat what you are given," Nessa said. Steve's eyebrows raised and started to open his mouth, "all your questions will be answered in turn, but first you must eat. If you don't want this, I can make you something else. I know from time with Ellie that you Americans like your bread, potatoes, and meatloaf?"

"We couldn't possibly inconvenience you, ma'am," Steve said, his voice shaking almost imperceptibly. "Perhaps you would like to sit down and rest?" Ellie had to smile. Steve's 1940s sensibilities had won out.

Nessa smiled and waved Steve off. "I am quite alright Steven. But I don't need to be psychic to know that you are hungry." Steve raised his eyebrows. "Do not deny that you are still hungry, Steven. I am fine the way that I am. If I need to sit down and rest I will, but now you are my guests and I wish to take care of you."

Ellie laughed, "don't mess with her Uncle Steve. She gets mean when you cross her."

"You will be staying tonight after I give you what you came here for. Ambrose, Alexander, and Niko will wish to see you, and I have spent all day cooking dinner for you, your lover, and your uncle." She set down a large bowl full of olives and olive oil and a dish of dolmades in front of the three of them. Ellie immediately dug in and Steve followed suite. Sam hesitated. "Having a hard time keeping up with super soldiers?" Nessa asked teasingly.

"I try my best, ma'am," Sam said with his easy, contagious smile.

"Please, call me Nessa," Nessa responded, her eyes crinkling into a smile. "You and Ellie will have quite the history. Do not worry. You will be able to keep up with her," Nessa said. "When the time comes, remember what you share. That will return much of what will be stolen."

Ellie laughed at Steve and Sam's faces. Each of them wore furrowed brows and open mouths as they stared at Nessa. "I told you yesterday that she's a psychic," she said with a smile. "Nessa's a powered, and under my protection."

"Our paths will cross many times in this life," Nessa said distantly. "But protection will not always be provided."

"And she refuses to tell me how," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. Nothing could ever stop her from protecting the people in the world who needed it.

"You will know when you need to know," Nessa answered, wobbling back to the kitchen to stir the gigantic pot of lamb stew.

"What I need to know is what you know about my father," Ellie said. "I got his name, Nessa. I just need to find him."

"The Osculating Man," Nessa said, nodding knowingly. "He has come in and out of my vision since before I can remember. Always shrouded in darkness, covered in evil. But the darkness that nearly swallowed him is melting away. He remembers himself."

Ellie shifted nervously. Desperate to know more. "That's good to hear. Can you see him now? Do you know where he is?"

"He will be where you seek him. You will find him when you least expect it," Nessa said.

"You make me crazy, Nessa, you know that, right?" Ellie asked.

"Eat some dolmades," Nessa pressed. "You are too thin."

"You always say that," Ellie said, grinning, but she took a plate and served herself some food.

"So you saved Nessa from bandits?" Steve asked.

"I ran into Nessa during what some would call a bad day. I didn't know about her powers at the time. I don't just help powered people, especially if they need help."

"You do that often?" Steve asked.

"People have no idea what's out there," she said. "their innocence is worth protecting."

"Mána! Mána!" called out young voices. Ellie immediately got up, grinning. Three young boys raced in with school backpacks and papers.

"English, please, my dearies," Nessa crooned, setting out more food. "We have guests and Ellie has come for a visit."

"Auntie Ellie! Auntie Ellie!" the young boys cheered. Ellie picked up the youngest, Niko, who giggled as she set the five-year-old on her shoulders. "What'd you bring us Auntie Ellie?" Niko asked.

"Nikolas," Nessa scolded.

Ellie smiled and balanced Niko as she produced a fairly large-sized rock from her pocket and handed it to Niko. "Where's it from Auntie Ellie?" Niko asked.

"It's from the Grand Canyon," Ellie said.

"I know where that is," Ambrose, the oldest, declared. "It's in America!"

"That's right," Ellie said. "But I also brought you something else. Do you know who that is?" she stage whispered. She pointed at Steve. The three boys stared at him. "That is Captain America."

"Woah," the three boys chorused, eyes wide and jaws dropped.

Steve smiled easily. "Are you really?" Alex asked. Ellie smiled. The three boys versus Captain America should be interesting, but Ellie frankly wanted to know what Nessa and Kostas thought of Sam more.

The night ran long and was lively and interesting. The kids were naturally fascinated by Steve and kept showing Ellie little things, catching her up on their lives. The healthy chatter of the kids and the easy conversation between Sam, Steve, Ellie, Kostas, and Nessa reminded her of her days when she lived on her own, but truly had the support of so many around her. She had come out of HYDRA expecting to have to fight the world, but had only been met with love and support. Eventually after several bottles of wine and way too much lamb stew and baklava, Nessa insisted that a plane "was not a proper place to sleep at night", even though all three had slept in far worse locations, but no one won an argument against Nessa. They parted ways the following morning, but not before Nessa pressed more leftovers into each of their arms.

"So," Steve said as they walked back to the plane trying to walk off some of the food. " _That's_ a psychic?"

"She's very good at it, though sometimes she's a tiny bit vague," she said, frowning a bit and wondering what it all meant.

"So we'll find him, if what she says is accurate," Sam said quietly.

"We'll find him," Ellie said confidently. "I can feel it."

When they landed in Paris the next morning, Ellie eagerly led them to her apartment. Her favorite place. Her studio apartment barely measured at 150 square meters - a squeeze with the three of them, but the location and view made it all worth it. Large bay windows revealed an excellent view of the Luxembourg Gardens and the Seine beyond and a tiny porch to the side allowed her to watch the sun rise on good mornings over an egg and a slice of homemade bread. A screen divided the room between Ellie's full bed and a very comfortable couch that pulled out into another full bed. She had a compacted, fold-up table and chairs that stored in a tiny closet, and a tiny kitchenette that she made work, despite her desire for a full kitchen. She remembered plenty of nights staying up late cooking with her friends over a bottle of wine, smoking on the porch, and talking about small nothings until the sun rose.

Sam sat down on the couch and groaned while Steve looked around, picking up on the fact that the atmosphere of this place felt different. Maybe Ellie read too much into it, but this place always felt like the closest thing she'd ever have to a home. "Whose safe house is this?" Steve asked.

Ellie grinned. "This isn't a safe house," Ellie said. "This is one of my places, and pretty much the closest place I've ever had to home. Now come on, I want to take you out for dinner. Les Papilles, across the gardens. I know one of the chefs there. Come on, I made a reservation."

"So you _do_ know people outside of the spy world?" Steve said as they made their way out of the walk-up.

"That was a bit of an over-generalization," Ellie said. "The people who know me as Ellie are all spies or powered people. The people around here know me as Jessica. I tend to keep my worlds separate, so I created enough aliases where I'd never burn my whole book. I'd never be stuck as Ellie without an escape route."

Ellie led them to a tiny shop across the park. Along one wall what must have been over a hundred bottles of wine were stored in little cupboards and shelving units, while along the other stood an old-fashioned counter top that reminded Steve of the old diners that used to be on every street corner.

"Jess! Oh my god, Jess!" cried a male voice. A man rushed over and picked Ellie up.

Ellie grinned. "Mark! How is my favorite ex-pat?" she asked. "Missing Boston yet?"

"I've been living here for seven years Jess." Mark said. "You know that I don't. How are you?"

Ellie shrugged. "You know how it is. I cook for rich guys a living. All they want is steak, burgers, and chicken fingers."

"You need a new job," Mark noted.

Ellie laughed. "I get to meet pretty interesting people with my job."

Mark looked past her at Steve and Sam and his eyes bugged out. "Jess, are they who I think they are?"

Ellie's smile widened. "That depends on who you think they are."

"Is that Captain America and the Falcon?" Mark asked.

"Then yes. Mark Jacobs, meet Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson."

"It's an honor to meet you both," Mark said, sticking out a hand. Ellie grinned back at Sam and her Uncle Steve. "So I've got a new recipe of bacheofe cooking for the three of you, and escargot for appetizers waiting because I know you love them so much, and strawberry-chocolate mousse for dessert."

"Sounds good." Ellie said. She loved Mark's cooking and was always happy to be a test palette.

"You going to be here for long?" Mark asked.

"Just tonight. We're doing a little bit of a world tour, checking out different cuisines, but we're going to be back in New York soon. I do want to come back for a nice long stay soon if I can swing it with my schedule. Why do you ask?"

"Marisol wants to do a pop-up restaurant." Mark noted. "She'd flip if you could help out."

"Email me the details and I'll see if I can," she said.

Mark led them to a table in the back and Ellie thanked any gods in existence that most of her friends had enough tact not to make a massively huge deal over Steve.

"So care to translate for us?" Sam asked as Mark walked back towards the kitchen. Ellie worked on uncorking the Merlot that Mark had passed her and pouring wine for all three of them (" _It's not supposed to get you drunk Uncle Steve, just drink it."_ )

"Mark's an old friend," Ellie said with a shrug. "He moved here seven years ago and hooked up with a girlfriend of mine. We're part of a lot of the same culinary circles. Mark asked me to come by because he's trying out some new recipes for the menu and he wanted a palette that he trusts.

"I remember liking dinner last night, but did we really eat that much food?" Sam asked. "Will my wings support me tomorrow?"

"I don't know, you may need to run a few extra miles tomorrow to work some of it off," Ellie joked.

"I'll run if you run," Sam said.

"That all depends on if you can keep up with me," Ellie flirted.

Steve looked very interested in his wine glass. "Escargot," a waiter announced a moment later, depositing three plates efficiently. Twelve snail shells sat on each of their plates.

"What does it taste like?" Steve asked, poking at one of his snails with his seafood fork.

"Heaven, Uncle Steve. It tastes like heaven," Ellie said. "No, it tastes like butter and garlic. Kind of like the consistency of mussels."

"I've had mussels," Steve said. "Ma would get them once in a while for Sunday dinner." He took a bite and raised his eyebrows as he started chewing enthusiastically.

"Damn, now I have to eat some," Sam said. He looked incredulously at the snails and took a tiny bite. "Wow. That is _really_ buttery!"

"Good?" Ellie asked cautiously.

"Not bad!" As the food flowed, Ellie fell back on conversation, spending more of her concentration on scanning any camera feed in the last few weeks that she could get her hands on.

She didn't resurface until dessert. "Anything?" Steve asked, digging in to his mousse.

"We missed him by four days," Ellie said quietly. She didn't like the look of the images she managed to grab of him. He was pale, thin, and didn't look like he had been sleeping well. She tried not to worry about him. Tried to remind herself that he was the Winter Soldier – he could easily handle himself, but damn it if she wasn't worrying about him.

They all looked down at their mousse dishes. Ellie somberly paid the check and they wordlessly filed out and back to their apartment. By the time they had finished, the sun was already setting. "I think I'll go for a run," Steve said, grabbing his running gear and making his way to the bathroom. Ellie handed him her spare key wordlessly and Steve's eyebrows furrowed.

"In case we aren't here when you get back," she said. Steve sighed, then nodded.

All three of them left the apartment, parting ways. Ellie walked quickly and directly towards the Seine. She needed to feel something other than the disappointment and pain she felt. They were so close to finding him and getting him to safety, but they were worlds away from any kind of a resolution.

"Ellie wait," Sam called after her. "Lee, come on."

She slowed down, "I don't want to talk about it," she said softly.

"So let's talk about something else," Sam said carefully. They had reached the river and Sam and Ellie strolled down the path along it, looking at the lights of the city around them. "So you've been to Paris a lot?"

Ellie nodded. "I spent a good portion of my twenties living here. It helped me to have friends who live close by – friends that have nothing to do with the spy game."

Sam wove his fingers through hers. "Yeah?"

Ellie nodded. "Most of them work at the restaurants around here. Long days, longer nights and not much pay for little recognition." She smiled at the thought of another life where she was a chef in the same shoes as her friends were. She would give anything to have that life.

"So you cook as well?"

"Yeah," Ellie said, nodding. "HYDRA's plan was that being able to cook professionally would provide me cover for longer jobs. It never panned out for them, but, I don't know. With cooking, I didn't have to be a spy or enhanced or anything. Plus I like the idea of building something up rather than breaking something down. I create something from a combination of my emotions and food and share it with people."

"I get that, there's plenty of stuff that I enjoy outside of being a soldier or the Falcon."

"Yeah? You care to share?"

Sam pointed to a square where a group of people were learning how to tango. "Can I?" Ellie grimaced. "We don't need to," he said in a rush. "We could go do something else. Or just walk. Walking's good."

"No, no… I'd love to. I just don't think I've danced like that in twenty years. HYDRA required ballroom classes starting when I turned three. When I escaped, I let it fall by the wayside as a skill I'd never use again. Like counting cards." She watched couples go through the basic steps. It did look like fun. "Where did you learn?"

"I was," he blushed a little. "… a bit of a klutz in the eighth grade. I grew six inches in one summer. So my mom signed me up for ballroom. I thought it was pretty lame at first, but then some girls at school got wind of it and they all wanted me to ask them to the school dances and to teach them how."

"Well, Mr. Wilson, you sly dog. Do you mind teaching a refresher course tonight?" Ellie asked, taking a step closer to him. He seemed like a great lead.

"Only because the student's so hot," Sam answered with his easy smile.

It took her a few songs for her body to remember the steps and rhythm to the tango, but when she did, she stopped looking down at their feet and started looking up at Sam. Her instincts were right. He was a fantastic lead. As the crowd around them melted away, so did the streets of Paris, until just she and Sam existed within their universe. Even the technology she normally felt buzzing all around her seemed to dissipate. As her body relaxed, she started to remember some of the more complicated footwork and he led her flawlessly into more complicated versions of the dance. Finally, the music changed and they wordlessly moved into an Argentine Tango.

She let herself get lost in being led around the dance floor. From the tension in his arms to the tilt of his hips to the intense look of passion and desire that she could see in his eyes. It was enough for Ellie to want to lower her walls and let him in, just a little bit. Some voice in the back of her mind objected, but the voice got drowned out by equal voices of her desire to get closer to him and her joy that there might be one person in her world who didn't see her as anything but herself.

The sound of applause was the only thing that brought them back to reality. They looked around and saw that everyone had stopped dancing to watch them. They looked back at each other and smiled.

"Vous faites un tel beau couple!"

Ellie laughed, "Thank you!" she said to the speaker. Other couples started dancing again and Ellie and Sam wordlessly decided to start strolling down the river walk again.

They stayed up late, talking and walking, discussing interests and other innocuous things away from the lives of spies and superheros. All in all, he had given her the perfect night. A night to remember, regardless of how badly she'd screw it up in the coming days. It was rare that she had been provided a night where she didn't need to be the Sentinel. By necessity, she became pretty good at reading people over the years. Her life often depended on it. Sam's apparent acceptance of her past, without judgment once the shock died off, pleasantly surprised her.

When they got back to the apartment, Steve was asleep, but he awoke when Ellie unlocked her door. Steve blinked a couple of times before nodding in recognition that both were safe and going back to sleep on the couch. "Guess we're sharing my bed," Ellie joked, causing Sam to go red.

"Oh please, like he didn't get some at least once in the two years he toured with those USO girls?" Ellie whispered.

This caused Sam to go even redder. "Can we please just go to bed?" he muttered.

Ellie shrugged and went into the bathroom to clean herself up and change. When she exited, Sam took his turn. Ellie turned down the bed and settled under the covers, leaving enough space on Sam's side. Sam's side. This wasn't going to end well for her at all.

She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as Sam got into bed next to her. While sleep came easily for Sam, she lay awake for hours, thinking. There may have been a few hours where she caught up on emails, checked her calendar, and responded to a few messages that had been left for her, but mostly she lay awake wondering if they'd ever find her father…. Her dad. And even if they did find him, could they get him back?

The next morning's flight was uneventful and the scan of Sicilian security feeds turned up nothing, even when she scanned well before HYDRA came out of hiding. She gave a cry of desperation, drawing Steve's and Sam's attentions to her. "There's nothing," Ellie said hollowly. "He wasn't here."

Both at them looked down at the table that they were sitting at. "Nothing." Steve growled, slamming his fist on the table. The wood splintered slightly. "There's nothing here?" he asked. His voice had a whine to it, full of desperation. "This was our last shot. He was supposed to be here. I thought you said that he'd be here! What was the point to all of this if we couldn't find him?" Ellie looked down in shame. She was so sure that her idea would work.

"What do you suppose we should do?" Sam asked.

Ellie sighed. "Go home," she said, defeated. The look on Steve's face still stung deeper though. "Regroup. We're at a dead end."

"We can't just give up!" Steve roared.

Ellie rounded on her uncle and simply exploded. "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT? I grew up without a father, Steve! I've never even gotten so much as to be allowed to _meet_ my father! You think you know what having Bucky out there feels like? You have no _idea_ how much this hurts. I've been looking for him twenty years and you've been doing it for _three months_. You think you know what pain feels like? You have no idea what it feels like to be searching for him alone. To know that someone was out there hurting him and you couldn't save him. That you couldn't even find him. We're going to New York. We need to regroup. This search gave us information, but we've reached a dead end. If you don't like it, then that's just tough, because if you resist me on this I will knock your punk ass to the ground and carry you back myself."

She stalked off. "Let me talk to her," Sam said softly

Steve sighed, staring after his niece. "No…" he said softly. This was a conversation the both of them had been avoiding. One that needed to happen. "I need to do this."

1 Kosta, my friend, how are you?

2 Ellie, my darling, I haven't seen you in so long! I am well.

3 You make such a beautiful couple!


	8. The Aftermath and the Aquarium

Ellie closed her eyes as she heard Sam and Steve conversing over her reaction, then Steve's footsteps as they followed her outside, where she stood, her emotions hanging by a thread. If Steve voiced his own, she'd break.

"Please don't," she said softly. "I know you hate me, but please don't say it. I don't think I could stand it if I heard you say that you hated me."

"Why would I hate you?" Steve asked, just as softly. There was a hint of curiosity in his voice.

Ellie opened her eyes barely able to contain her tears. "Because I couldn't protect him," she said. "This is all my fault. If I wasn't a failure, he'd be home right now. He'd be happy and safe back in Brooklyn."

"Doll, I'm fairly sure that it doesn't work that way. I worry more about the fact that there was no one to protect you."

"I'm older than you," Ellie pointed out.

"But he's your father." countered Steve. "He'd want me to take care of you."

"I don't need you to," Ellie noted.

"Have you ever allowed yourself to be taken care of?" Steve asked. He froze as Ellie stiffened.

"I don't need anyone to take care of me, Uncle Steve. What I need is to make sure that I can protect my father and my family. That's what I need."

Steve stared at her. "Bullshit," he said.

Ellie's eyes went wide. "I'm sorry?"

"That's bullshit and both of us know it. I don't hate you. You know who's responsible for what happened to Bucky? HYDRA. You shouldn't hold yourself responsible for what was out of your control when you were a kid."

Ellie snorted. "You more than most people should get that just because you shouldn't doesn't mean you don't."

Steve smiled and took another step forward. "True, but that's what the heavy bag's for. I'm sorry I lost my temper."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Ellie whispered.

Steve sighed. "You're right, regrouping sounds like a good plan. Besides, I haven't checked for anything in Brooklyn in a few weeks with us being gone, so maybe I can find some hint of where he's headed there."

"Then let's get you two home," Ellie said. She saw the look on Steve's face and could see the argument forming in his mind. That she had a home, too. But truthfully, she couldn't have a home with her father missing.

The flight home was long, silent, and awkward. A weight came over Ellie as the wheels touched the ground in New York. Getting off the plane and following Sam and Uncle Steve, she let her mind wander. Her father should be with them. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. She wanted…

"Pandora, catch," Stark said the second that they entered the kitchen.

Ellie grabbed the object that came hurtling through the air on instinct, then dropped to the ground. Somebody yanked the object out of her hand and she realized that she had been screaming.

"Ellie, I need to see your hand," Clint commanded as Ellie knelt, panting heavily. She tried to move it and winced. She took a couple of deep breaths and blinked, coming back to herself. "I'm fine Clint, really," she said with an easy smile.

"Miss Ellie, from your vital signs I'm registering that you may be in distress," came JARVIS' voice.

"I'm fine, J," Ellie said, trying to get her heart rate and breathing under control. "And it's just Ellie."

She could see Sam and Steve, clearly resisting not to come over and see what happened. Everyone else looked confused and concerned. Even Stark's eyebrows furrowed together. "Come on, Ellie. Show me your hand. I just need to make sure none of the skin was broken," Clint prodded. Natasha was on her other side, whispering to her in Russian. Ellie sucked in a deep breath and nodded. She hissed slightly as Clint eased her hand open.

"Ok, it's not too bad," Clint coaxed. "Hey Bruce, can you go get some gauze and a bandage?" Ellie looked and saw Bruce heading for the communal kitchen where she guessed the first aid kit was stored.

Tony, Steve, and Sam came closer and all got a good look at the burn on her hand. "What the hell?" Stark said, glancing from the burn to the phone that now lay on the ground in pieces. She took a couple breaths, her body adjusting to the pain.

"All powers have a downside," she said with a grimace. "We can't all be like Uncle Steve who just eats more, sleeps less, and can't let anything go. This is the drawback of being able to see and manipulate data. If I physically touch any tech that has a hard drive, it creates a feedback loop and most of the time I get at least a second degree electrical burn." She stood up and relocated to a stool. Bruce joined them quickly and started cleaning the wound.

Tony looked horrified and Clint snorted. Ellie tried her best to ignore the look she received from Natasha. "Ellie, if it was just an electrical burn then we wouldn't be so worried," Clint said as he watched Bruce now drying the burn. "Ellie here tends to omit certain details when she's injured."

"Pot," Ellie pointed out.

Clint shrugged his shoulders and continued. "If she touches tech, like a StarkPhone, her brain receives all the data it's receiving at once and she has no ability to filter anything out because she's physically touching the device. It can cause some pretty bad side effects."

"What kind of side effects?" Steve asked.

"Fatigue, headache, slurred speech, tremors, seizures, paralysis, loss of cognitive function, stroke… a few others," Ellie said quietly. "Most of those only happen with prolonged contact and so far, nothing's been permanent. I've never even scarred from the burns." Sam, Steve, Tony, and Bruce all looked horrified. "Guys really, I've never been damaged for long because of it. It's just a side effect. Downside to having crazy hacking powers."

"You got a headache? Any signs you triggered an attack?" Natasha asked.

Clint poked at Ellie's temple _hard_. "Does this hurt?"

Ellie responded by grabbing Clint's wrist and twisting. Clint countered by grabbing her ankle. "Ellie!" Natasha chastised.

Ellie let go of Clint, but grinned. "Natasha, really. I'm fine. I promise you that if I wasn't than I'd say so."

Natasha looked suspicious. "I should still call Hank," she hedged.

"I'll go get checked out if there are any underlying side effects. I'll let you take me yourself."

"Hank?" Sam asked.

"I've talked about him before," Ellie said. "You remember, the mutant with the medical degree?" Sam and Steve both nodded, remembering some of the stories she told as they were looking for Bucky. "Clint and Natasha always feel a little better when I get checked over by someone who's well-versed in my medical history."

"And since _someone_ pretty much consistently refuses to go to the doctor, it's easier for her to go to a friend." Natasha said.

"At least I haven't needed to be drugged to stay where I'm put," Ellie said with a smile.

"That only happened one time," Clint argued.

"Budapest, Tokyo, Sydney, that thing in Sokovia, and that thing in Wakanda that didn't officially happen," Ellie noted.

"If you're well enough to spout technicalities at me, then you're well enough to grab Lucky for me. He got out earlier and is currently on Bruce's floor. If you would be so kind as to bring him to mine." He said annoyed.

"Sure, want to come with, Bruce?"

"Well it is my floor," He replied. The pair got up and left.

"Thanks for watching Lucky with Clint gone," she said. "Obviously he likes you."

"No worries," Bruce said. "He was easier to take care of than Tony."

Ellie laughed. "I bet."

"Can I ask you something?" Bruce asked suddenly.

"I believe you just did, but go ahead," Ellie said with a smile.

"Why did you look after me? Why do you do what you do? And the real answer, not the other one."

Ellie didn't say a word until the elevator reached Bruce's floor. Upon reaching the floor, Ellie crouched down and start petting Lucky first thing. "Hi cutie, how are you? You been a good boy?" His tail wagged harder as he whined and instinctively nudged her injured hand.

She continued petting Lucky, not looking at Bruce. "When I escaped I was… pretty damn messed up. I nearly died. It took me three years before I could live on my own. The idea that someone can cause damage like that to another person is despicable, but…"

"That's the way the world works?" Bruce suggested. "Until we change it."

"Something like that, yeah," Ellie said. "You know, most of the Avengers don't have that attitude."

"Hey, I had the entire US Army after me. A General wanted to imprison me and experiment on me. Everyone wants a piece of the Hulk."

"There was this hitman in Dubai," Ellie said as Lucky licked her chin. "He tried to take me out when I was fifteen."

"MI5 team, two years ago in Nairobi," Bruce countered with a small smile.

"Mossad," Ellie said. "Really all of the 90s."

They looked at each other, "SHIELD," they both said.

"No one's looked for you for fifteen years?" Bruce asked. "Tell me your secrets?"

"I've been dead," Ellie said with a knowing smile. "It's great being dead. No one looks for you."

"You look good for a dead spy," Bruce noted.

Ellie shrugged, "I may have had some work done." She regarded Bruce seriously. "Does Natasha know about you?"

"To be honest, I've never been this open about it. I'm not usually a big fan of talking about this," Bruce said. "I'm pretty private about all of this."

"They won't judge you if you tell them. I mean, Stark might mock you a little bit, but that's Stark."

Bruce got serious. "Still, I'd prefer not to bring it up with the others."

Ellie started scratching behind Lucky's ears until the lab rolled over onto his back, tongue lolling to the side. "No worries. Everyone has a topic that they don't like talking about. If you ever _do_ want to talk about it with someone who isn't an Avenger and totally understands, I'm here."

"I appreciate it," Bruce said. "Did you enjoy traveling?"

"Well I've never actually been that far in the Swiss Alps, so I guess that's something to cross off my bucket list, plus I got to see a bunch of old friends which I enjoyed. Plus introducing them to Steve turned out to be really entertaining."

"There are some friends I made in India that I haven't seen since New York that I'd love to visit."

"You should ask Stark if he'll lend you a plane. I'm sure Stark wouldn't mind and you deserve a vacation."

"I'll think about it," Bruce said.

"Do that," she replied. "Meanwhile, I might check your fridge if I were you, this one has been known to open food doors."

He laughed softly and shook his head, "Like owner, like pet. You go on and take him up to Clint's floor. I'll take care of whatever mess Lucky made."

"Thanks," She lead Lucky to the elevator and turned back. "Remember what I said."

She dropped Lucky off at Clint's apartment and then went to the common floor. "Hey!" Sam called.

Ellie couldn't help but smile when she spotted him. "Oh my god, is that the _Falcon_?" she asked sarcastically.

"Ha ha," Sam said, approaching her with a certain degree of swagger and kissing her in greeting. He took her hand and manipulated it so that he could see her palm. He peeked under the gauze. It already looked several days old. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Sam, I'm fine. This happens. Not often, but once in awhile I touch something I don't mean to."

"Stark's already putting protocols in place. I'm afraid you've been banned from his R&D floors."

Ellie chuckled. "I'll live."

"Look, I'm going to propose something here. Would you go on a date with me?"

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

Ellie checked her watch. It was just after 2 PM. She might be able to pull off a new dress, makeup, hair, and nails in that time. "Pick me up at 7?" she asked.

"I'll pick you up on this floor," Sam said. "Now I think Cap wants to show me the gym and kick my ass for old-times' sake."

"Enjoy yourself," Ellie called. "Don't let my uncle know about tonight. He might not let you out in one piece."

She watched Sam leave then quickly pulled her specially-made cell phone and called Natasha. "Nat," she said with a smile. "Want to give me a makeover?"

Ellie could practically hear the cat-like grin on the other end of the line. "What floor are you on?" Natasha asked.

"The common floor," Ellie said, immediately regretting her decision. Ellie had never been trained like Natasha. For the majority of her time in HYDRA, she was trained to protect her mission. It was a skill set she used frequently over her time independent of any agency. She never gave much focus to her appearance. She knew how, of course, but she preferred her sweats, a ponytail, and take out to the dresses, slicked-back hair, and five-star restaurants of the high life.

Natasha was an entirely different story. She spent years trying to convince Ellie that she could use a more stylish haircut, a new wardrobe, some designer heels (she could walk in them but preferred not to - it was harder to deliver a roundhouse kick to someone's balls), and makeup. She never wore makeup after leaving HYDRA. Her job never required it and her last boyfriend never cared, especially since they usually just ended up screwing.

She hesitating, debating backing out of her request when the elevator doors opened. "Maybe-" she started.

"No," Natasha said. "I swear to god you are not going back on this. So help me I will get you drunk and/or tie you down if I need to in order to get you to do this. You seriously need a haircut that you aren't going to do yourself with a chef's knife, and if I see that hoodie of yours one more time, I'm going to burn it."

Ellie groaned. "Fine," she said. "Let's get this over with."

Natasha's grin suggested things that Ellie didn't even want to think about.

Ellie was glad that she gave Natasha a deadline of 6pm. She whisked Ellie through hair and makeup and an entirely new wardrobe from 5th Avenue including several pairs of designer shoes. Natasha paid for everything, even though Ellie didn't even know where she could store that many clothes. She had been nomadic since she was seventeen and traveled with a single duffle bag filled with functional clothes. Before today, she owned a single pair of shoes and lived extremely simply.

When they got back, Natasha finally left her alone in her guest quarters with J to get ready. She showered, applied her makeup, dressed in one of the gowns Natasha insisted on buying her, and heels that went with the dress. Checking her hair, she sighed as she realized that she couldn't delay going to the common floor any longer.

When Ellie stepped out of the elevator, all conversation stopped as attention directed toward her. She blushed as she spotted herself in a mirror in a midnight blue dress that went to the middle of her thigh, practically no back, and a matching clutch. Natasha gave a satisfied smirk towards Pepper Potts and she could see Bruce's eyes dilate slightly. Steve's and Clint's jaws were practically on the floor. Stark gave a low whistle. "Damn. I imagined that you'd clean up nice, but you're enough to make a good dog break his leash."

Clint and Steve suddenly stiffened. "Down boys," Ellie said with a smile. "No biting," she said. She smiled. "I'm choosing to take that as a compliment. Even if I didn't, I could get my revenge in ways that would hurt him more than a few punches to his ribs."

"Doesn't mean we won't want our own revenge," Steve growled, glaring at Stark.

Any further complaints were cut of by Sam making his appearance in a suit. He smiled. "You ready?"

"Stark made a sexist comment and my uncle and brother threatened death to him. Let's go before my family decides that I'm too young for all of this."

"Have her back by eleven!" Stark called. Ellie blinked and grinned as they heard Stark swearing.

"Coffee maker's on the network," Ellie explained to Sam, whose eyebrows were drawn together. They both dissolved into laughter as the elevator descended.

"So question for you," Ellie asked nearly an hour later as they stared at the penguins hopping around fake rocks. "How the hell did you manage to convince the New York Aquarium to stay open after hours?"

"I know Captain America, haven't you heard?" Sam said with a grin.

Ellie laughed. "You know, I've got to say, this reminds me of the week I spent at McMurdo," she said.

"You spent a week at the Antarctic Air Force base?" Sam asked. "Why?"

Ellie smiled sadly, "I'm not allowed to say. It was one of the few times that I've taken a government job. It wasn't bad pay. The food kinda sucked though. MREs are not five-star fare."

"All they ever sent me to was the Sandbox. I never went anywhere cool like that when I was enlisted," Sam complained.

"Like your life is so hard now," Ellie pointed out.

They walked across to the seals, watching them. "So you've trained as a professional chef, you know ninja skills that equal Natasha's, you've travelled the world, can hack any computer. There has to be something wrong with you," he said, awed.

Ellie sighed, staring at the seals. "Sometimes I have a hard time sticking around anywhere for long," she admitted seriously. "I've been accused of being obsessed with the search for my father by everyone remotely close to me, and there will always be secrets." She looked over and saw Sam staring at her. "What?"

Sam looked away and was silent for a moment until, "I get it," he said quietly. "It's all about finding him, isn't it? You don't stay in one place for long because you're looking for him. I'd do the exact same thing." Ellie nodded. "We'll find him, Ellie, understand? You don't have to do this alone anymore." She stared back at him for a few moments before nodding. "Now, you need to consider a very big question of mine." Sam said. "Have you ever met a seal?"

"I can't say that's on my list of past experiences, no," Ellie said.

"Do you want to?" Ellie threw caution to the wind and nodded eagerly. Totally. Screwed.

Once the puddles of hot coffee got cleaned up, Stark and Bruce went back to their labs, leaving Steve, Clint, and Natasha talking.

"I'm worried about her is all," Steve explained. "She thinks not being able to find Bucky is her fault. She refuses to let me take care of her."

Clint and Natasha exchanged a look. "Ellie's never been the type to let people take care of her." Natasha said. "She's been on her own since she turned twenty and she doesn't even have a high school education. She's good at her job - so good that she could retire now if she wanted, but she spends all the resources she can on finding her father."

"And she's never found any hint of him," Steve said.

Clint shook his head, "She never told us anything about him either. All we ever knew is that she's been looking for him."

"Do you know anything about her mother?" Steve asked.

"Pretty much what Ellie knows. Her mother was a mutant, probably American, who got captured by HYDRA while traveling abroad. HYDRA killed her after giving birth to Ellie. Everything else is a total mystery, even to Ellie."

"You're not the only one who worries about her, Steve," Clint pointed out. "If we had our way, she'd stay in New York full time where we could keep an eye on her, but for as long as either of us have known her, she's always been… nomadic."

"Do you have any idea why?"

"Her answer varies," Clint said with a shrug. "If you ask me, she's afraid that HYDRA will find her again."

"I'd never let that happen," Steve said.

"None of us would," Clint said. "But…"

Steve's eyes were instantly steel. "But what," he asked coldly.

"Clint, really I don't think-" Natasha started.

"You can't deny that she's been hiding something from us, Tasha."

"We're spies, Clint. We all hold secrets from each other," Natasha gave him a look. "I don't from you, of course. But Skye has secrets too and we keep secrets from them."

"Can someone explain what the hell you're talking about?" Steve asked in exasperation. Natasha and Clint exchanged another glance. "Please," Steve begged.

"Ellie's timeline has holes in it," Clint said. "There's three years of her life from fourteen to seventeen and another year when she was twenty-one that she doesn't talk about to anyone. All we know is that when Hank found her in a hole in the ground in Iran during that first timeframe, she was half-dead, even for someone enhanced."

"As bad as our combined experiences were, she's never told any of us, which is an indicator of how bad things might have been for her," Natasha said quietly. "She has nightmares where she wakes up screaming. I mean, we all do, but when she wakes up from these, she isn't herself for a few hours."

"What can I do to help?" Steve asked helplessly.

Clint stared at him, eyebrows slightly furrowed in clear disbelief. "Steve, you've helped her more than any of us ever have. She has a name. Do you know how much it means to her that she has a name and someone to help her look?"

"I guess I'm going to Brooklyn tomorrow to look for Bucky," Steve said with a nod. He started out the door, feeling a little better.

"Steve," Clint called. Steve turned around.

"Thank you," Natasha said quietly.


	9. The CIA and the Confinement

Ellie gathered the sheets around her as she woke up slowly, blinking at the sunlight streaming through the window. Sam stirred as well. "I wondered what sex with a super-soldier would be like," he said.

Ellie looked over her shoulder at his smiling face. "We could always go another round," Ellie offered with a smirk.

Sam sighed dramatically. "I guess what they say about the refractory period is true. You exhaust all your boyfriends this much?"

"Eh, it's never been an issue before," Ellie said with a shrug.

"I wonder if Cap will be curious if I skip the run this morning," Sam mused. Ellie shrieked as Sam grabbed her and pulled her back towards him and onto his stomach.

Sam stared at she lay on to of him. "You're so beautiful," he said softly. Ellie blushed and buried her face in his chest. "Don't deny that you are," Sam said.

"Most people don't see me for my beauty," Ellie noted with a slight frown.

"How could they not?" Sam asked.

Ellie got off of Sam, taking up the sheet and getting up out of bed. She walked to the window and stared out at the city below her. "Growing up, HYDRA saw me as a weapon and nothing else," she said softly. "After being freed from that, the X-Men and the Brotherhood saw me as a Mutant, and nothing else. Then when I left them to work for myself and not either mutant group, people saw me as a symbol - the Sentinel, and nothing else. People see me for what they want from me. I've never been my own person. I've never been noticed for my beauty. I'm noticed more for my Walther PPK and my hacking skills."

"You carry a Walther PPK when you're on mission?" Sam asked, impressed.

Ellie shrugged. "Sometimes I need a gun for backup, but I prefer my sai or fists for close combat. Guns aren't very useful in a close-quarters fight and that's where I've always been the most useful."

"You ever need a sparring partner, I'd love to see what you can do sometime," Sam said.

"I thought I showed you last night," Ellie jested, heading for a shower. "Now, are you gonna join me and show me what those arms can do fly boy or am I going to have to clean my back myself?"

After their shared shower, Ellie headed up for the common floor while Sam stayed behind to answer the emails that piled up in the three weeks that they were gone.

Steve, it seemed, was doing the same thing. "Morning AOL," Stark greeted.

Ellie froze. "AOL?" she asked.

"America Online?" Stark returned. "Captain America's niece? Superpowers?"

"I got it, Rocker," Ellie said with a grin.

"Rocker?" Stark said with an appreciative grin.

"Yeah," Ellie said. "Red Rocker? Rock Em' Sock Em' Robot? He's good at getting punched?"

Clint let out a loud laugh. Tony didn't look impressed. "Got another email from Sharon," Steve said to Natasha, clearly ignoring the verbal sparring match and looking at his tablet as he drank his coffee. "She's been complaining about her boss a little. According to her, he's a bit of a 'toolbag'."

"Oh?" Ellie asked, only vaguely interested, getting coffee for herself.

"In her own words, 'Louis Parker is the most narcissistic, misogynistic tool bag I've ever had the displeasure of working for'."

Ellie stiffed very slightly, recognizing the name. "Who's Sharon?" she asked, trying not to sound too curious.

"Sharon Carter," Steve explained. "She worked with us at SHIELD. She happens to be Peggy's great-niece."

Peggy Carter. Ellie leaned against the counter and exhaled as quietly as possible. Steve looked at her curiously. "Really?" Ellie said, keeping her tone curious. She closed her eyes and checked her schedule. No meetings today. She wanted to go with Steve to check Brooklyn for her father, or go with Sam to get to know him better somewhere private, like back in his quarters, but both things could be put off for twenty-four hours, especially when Parker is involved.

"Yeah. She sounds like she's really loving her job though."

"Hmmm," Ellie hummed.

"Morning, Lee," Sam said, greeting her as if they hadn't spent the night together.

"Morning," Ellie greeted, kissing Sam. "You got plans today?"

"I need to go down to the VA and catch up on some things," Sam said. "Did you want to do something?"

"I can't today, so I'm honestly a little glad you made plans," Ellie said. "A client's requesting a meeting in Pittsburgh so I'd be gone all day."

"Would you be home tonight?" Sam asked.

"If all goes according to plan, I'll be back early tomorrow morning," Ellie said.

"Well that settles it then," Sam said with a smile.

"What?" Ellie asked,

"Brunch tomorrow at the diner down the street," Sam said.

"Yes, please," Ellie said with a grin. "Does this mean I get to meet the infamous Beth that Steve won't shut up about?" Steve went red as the others laughed.

She felt a pang in her stomach as she left the tower. For one of the first times in her life, she didn't _want_ to leave. Leaving could mean goodbye forever. If this was goodbye, she wondered if they'd forgive her.

Instead of flying to Pittsburgh, she took a greyhound to D.C., then took the metra over to Langley. It was late afternoon by the time that she arrived. She found a building across the river where she could stake out the place, and waited until the small hours of the morning. Hacking into the building's surveillance, she could see Sharon, still inside and working on a mountain of paperwork. Ellie fought against the instinct to infiltrate now and to hell with the consequences if she got a Carter away from Parker, but she needed to wait for the perfect opportunity.

Infiltrating the CIA felt like child's play for Ellie. She spent the first seventeen years of her life learning the ins and outs of the building. She grew up with Langley as her playground. She remembered as a child doing evade and capture drills at two in the morning when everyone else should have been home in bed. She knew the floor plan better than Parker himself. A small, almost silent jet pack and a hang glider got her to the roof, and air vents got her inside.

She snuck down hallways, looping video and audio surveillance as she went until she spotted Carter, bent over a mountain of paperwork at her desk. She rushed at the woman. Within seconds of Ellie starting at her, Sharon jump to her feet, ready to fight Ellie. Ellie couldn't help but admire the woman.

"Sharon Carter, you need to trust me. I'm a friend of Steve's and I've come to get you out of here," Ellie said quickly.

Sharon's eyebrows drew together. "What?" she asked curiously.

"I've come to get you out of here. You need to trust me. Your boss is dangerous. He's HYDRA," Ellie explained, even though there wasn't much time. Their window was closing rapidly.

"Ellie, it's time to come in from the cold," came a voice. Fear grabbed Ellie's heart. She knew that voice. She had grown up with that voice. That voice haunted her nightmares.

Ellie turned around and smirked, pushing her fear down to the dark places. "It's been a long time, Parker. Do you honestly think that you could still trigger me?"

Parker smiled himself as he took out a second gun. "Whitehall theorized that you might have survived," he purred."Malick and I figured that Whitehall isn't often wrong and that you might get wind of my success and come seeking revenge. You're anger is misguided, my dear."

"Carter, get behind me," Ellie barked, grabbing Sharon by the arm and backing up towards a window. Ellie didn't need to look around to count the number of guns trained on them at that moment. She tensed, trying to grab Sharon and shove her down out of the line of fire. She didn't take her eyes of Parker. She tried to control her breathing. She tried to not give Parker any sign. Sharon looked from Ellie to her boss in total confusion. "Carter, get the fuck behind me right now," Ellie demanded. Sharon slowly moved behind her and Ellie forced her as far down as possible.

"If I remember correctly, you respond with a rather interesting reaction to this particular treatment," Parker said.

"No matter what you do, I will not to comply," Ellie spat, tears springing to her eyes.

"You misunderstand," Parker said. "Compliance is not necessary." He squeezed the trigger on the gun. She tried to dodge, but covering Sharon slowed her reaction time and she felt the searing pain as she got hit by the bullet. A through and through. Ellie grabbed the unidirectional explosive and flung it at the window. The glass shattered, which drew everyone's attention away for long enough for Ellie to make a get away. She grabbed Sharon with one arm and in a flash secured her repelling gear to the wall using her increased speed.

Parker raised his gun and pulled the trigger, but missed as Ellie leapt out of the window with Sharon screaming bloody murder in her ear. They descended the seven floors quickly and Ellie placed Sharon on the ground. Ellie started moving, then turned to see Sharon stopped and looked rather gray-faced.

Ellie ran back and grabbed Sharon's hand, pulling her along. "Run now, hurl later," she said quickly. She tried her best to push away the data that was coming at her. Sharon could keep up with her fairly well. Ellie spotted a motorcycle and the pair hopped on. She hot-wired the thing as men started pouring out of the building. Ellie pulled a small disk out of her backpack and passed it to Sharon. "Hold this and hang on tight," she demanded.

The gunfire started and Sharon really didn't need to be told twice. Ellie revved the bike and backed the bike up out of the parking space before shooting off towards the gate. "Give me the disk!" She shouted to Sharon over the wind. Sharon passed it to her and she hurled it towards the gate. It landed just in front of where the ramp had been raised to stop them and instantly inflated, creating a ramp of it's own. They flew through the guards and broke through the gate before speeding off into the night. Fifteen miles of backroads later, Ellie finally pulled over to the side of the road.

Sharon immediately got off of the bike, pacing and staring at Ellie. "What just… who the hell are you?"

"Like I said. My name is Ellie, I'm a friend of Steve Rogers'. Your boss is most certainly HYDRA and HYDRA having a Carter is massively dangerous."

"It's the CIA. Are you saying that HYDRA's infiltrated the CIA too?"

"Carter, there's not many government organizations that HYDRA hasn't infiltrated to some degree. HYDRA doesn't deal in chance. They wanted assurances. If HYDRA got the opportunity, they would have applied the Faustus method of brainwashing you." Neither HYDRA nor the CIA filed any record of any brainwashing taking place, or record of a time gap in the back data. No evidence of looping. All evidence pointed to the fact that that Sharon hadn't yet been brainwashed.

Sharon paled and her eyes became unfocused. "I think I need to sit down," she said softly.

Ellie slapped Sharon hard across the cheek. "Pull it together, you can freak out later. You need to go to ground. HYDRA's going to be looking for you and I under the guise that I kidnapped you. Do you have a safe space, or do you need me to take you somewhere?"

"My grandmother told me about an old SHIELD base. It's out of use and not on any SHIELD records," Sharon said quietly.

Ellie nodded. "I know where that is, though it's not out of use. SHIELD survived. I trust them, with this at least. I can drop you off." Sharon didn't look surprised at the news, but nodded, her eyes still distant. Sharon looked at Ellie's arm, the one that had been struck with the bullet and seemed to come back to herself a little.

"Your arm okay?" Sharon asked.

Ellie nodded, looking at it through the bullet hole in her shirt. The purple around the already-healed bullet wound causing her a certain degree of panic. It was spreading faster than she anticipated. Parker must have changed the potency. "No worries, I heal fast," she said with a grim smile, once again hiding her fear. "Let's go."

It wasn't long before the two arrived at the base. She glanced at a clock and realized the late hour. Ellie doubted that anyone was awake. She unlocked the locks and lead Sharon through. "I think there's some food in the kitchen, and a bed if you need some sleep."

"I don't think I can sleep after what just happened," Sharon said. Ellie spotted a light on. "I think I'll go grab some hot chocolate. Do you want some?"

Ellie turned back to Sharon. "No thanks, I should get going," she said.

Sharon nodded. "Thank you, anyways, for the rescue."

"I'd say any time, but I really hope that this doesn't become a habit," Ellie said with a smile.

Sharon smiled kindly and laughed. "Here's hoping."

Sharon left towards the kitchen and Ellie waited until she left before going towards the light.

What she saw made her heart stop. Skye, in a glass cube. Quarantined. Ellie shut her eyes and checked the files, reading reports as quickly as possible. San Juan, the city beneath, Terragenesis… Ellie's snapped her eyes opened, though the data continued. She shook her head a couple times before it cleared. SHIELD wouldn't understand this. Especially after New York. The world could hardly take the presence of mutants.

Ellie realized that her suspicions about Skye were now confirmed. She suspected that Skye was Inhuman, after receiving Skye's distraught emails about her father, but did not want to inform anyone unless the suspicions were confirmed. Of course, from what Ellie read, Ellie knew that it was true. Skye was an Inhuman and the quarantine wasn't necessary. Approaching the doors to quarantine, she overrode the locks and silenced the alarms with ease before approaching the bed that her sister slept in.

"Skye," Ellie said softly, brushing her baby sister's bangs back. Skye looked so young and innocent when she slept, as if her childhood and the past year with SHIELD had never occurred. The young woman woke with a start and her eyes went wide when she saw Ellie standing over her.

Things in the room started to rattle. "Ellie, what are you doing here? I could infect you. I could be dangerous." Skye said in a small voice.

Ellie took one look at Skye, sitting on the bed, and embraced her in a tight hug. The girl tensed in Ellie's arms. "Hey, I'm not leaving," she said quietly into Skye's ear. "What did I promise you? I'll never walk away. I love you. Not as long as you want me, and even if you don't I'll still watch over you."

Skye made a scared whimper that reminded Ellie of the girl she found all those years ago. The broken girl that had so much potential. Ellie couldn't help but gather Skye up in her arms. "I'm sorry, baby. So sorry that I wasn't there. I'm here now, okay."

Skye let out a sob as she collapsed into her older sister. The ground shook a little and Ellie stroked her hair until the ground stopped. "We're gonna go now, okay?" Ellie said softly, slipping an arm under Skye's legs. "You're gonna be okay."

Skye looked at Ellie in shock and stared at her. "I can't. I-I'm a SHIELD agent," she said. "I have to stay."

Ellie pulled away from Skye so that she could look down at her sister's face, brushing the girl's hair behind her ears."They locked you away, alone, to see what powers you might come out of the chamber with. They believe you've been infected. No one's come to visit you and we both know the truth. What do you think they'll do when they find out about your powers?"

"The Index," Skye breathed. "But no matter where I go, I'm dangerous. Izzy is already dead because of me. Out there … My father's out there. He's crazy, Ellie. And Ward, oh God," Small things on counters began to shake, but those calmed down as Ellie pulled Skye close and stroked her hair.

Ellie nodded, "I can take 'em," she said. "Besides where we're going, no one can follow." Suddenly her vision swam and for a second she saw Daniel in the room for a second. Ellie paled. She knew that Daniel died a long time ago. Hallucinations were never a good sign, but that would have to be dealt with later. She needed to get Skye out of here, but the real question was if they could make it to the school where they'd be protected from SHIELD.

"Where would we go?" Skye asked. Her tone sounded broken and Ellie reminded herself that circumstances yet again forced Skye to give up a chance at a normal life. Skye didn't know it yet, but Ellie knew that Skye's life would never be the same again.

Ellie sighed. "One of my clients is a group of people like you," she said. "They call themselves Inhumans. They can teach you things. They can tell you about your family history. The only question I have for you is, do you trust me?"

Skye immediately nodded. "You know I do," Skye said, her voice a little less shaky. Ellie thanked whatever gods listened to her that Skye wasn't retreating into herself like she usually did when bad shit happened to her. Ellie started to prepare to carry Skye, but her little sister stopped her. "I can walk," Skye said meekly.

"Come on then," Ellie said with a small smile, setting her down. They walked to the garage, meeting no one due to the small hour of the morning. Ellie blacked out all the cameras as they rushed to the stolen bike. They ditched the bike for a pickup two towns over, then for a sedan another hour away. It normally took four hours to drive from Virginia to New York. With Ellie's bike and some creative driving, it usually took her more like three. But after two and a half, Ellie found the need to stop, the effects of the bullet Parker shot her with taking its toll. She knew that she couldn't make it to the school and knew she couldn't protect Skye at the tower. As much as she hated to play that card now, rather than at a time when she could accompany Skye.

"What's going on?" Skye asked from her seat in front of Ellie. Ellie sighed. She didn't want to say goodbye to Skye, but Skye needed something that Ellie couldn't provide.

Ellie took a breath, "Gordon," she called.

The man appeared out of nowhere. "Eleanor," Gordon greeted. Ellie smiled tightly. She glanced at Skye, who looked torn between horror and shock. She paled as she got out of the truck. Ellie couldn't really blame her. Gordon's forehead extended down to his cheekbones. He had no eyes

"Gordon, this is Skye. HYDRA obtained one of the stones and they tried to weaponize it. In the midst of trying to stop them, Skye was accidentally exposed." She winced as the pain in her head started to build up.

Gordon smiled. "You look like your mother, Skye. If Jiaying were still alive, she'd be proud of what you became."

Skye didn't seem to hear them. Her eyes were becoming unfocused and Ellie could see sweat starting to form on Skye's forehead. She looked at Ellie with huge, terrified brown eyes wide and swimming with unshed tears. "He was right," Skye said quietly. "There's darkness inside of me." The ground began to shake around them.

"You know I don't believe that," Ellie said, Skye's knees buckled and Ellie caught her.

"He said that I'd always be his." Skye said weakly. "That we'd be in the darkness together. And then I shot him,"

Ellie knew this. Mention of Skye shooting Ward in the head after Ward kidnapped and practically tried to assault her had been in Coulson's report, but it was still hard to see how much Ward's death affected her baby sister.

Skye went even paler. Enough that Ellie became concerned. "I think I'm gonna be sick," Skye said softly.

She leaned over and started vomiting. Despite her own pain, Ellie moved over to Skye and quickly gathered Skye's hair and held it. Gordon came over to them. Once Skye finished, she straightened and Ellie sat her down on the ground. The area around them trembled slightly and Gordon felt her forehead. "She needs to be transitioned," he said. "She has a slight fever already. You should have called me hours ago."

"Transitioning doesn't cause this. What's going on?" Ellie asked.

"Transitioning can briefly suppress the immune system." Gordon said as Skye leaned against Ellie with a groan. "If something infected her just before or just after or she was fighting a virus at the time, it might have been given the opportunity to get a foothold before anyone could catch it. You should have gotten her to us sooner."

"You think I wanted this?" Ellie snapped. "It wasn't exactly something that I could control or stop. I wasn't even there."

"What's happening?" Skye asked. She sounded exhausted. "Ellie?"

Ellie turned to Skye, grabbing a cheek with one hand and stroking her sister's hair comfortingly with the other. "Skye, this is where we need to part ways for a little while. Gordon's going to help you out. I trust him, and he's like you, so that's an added bonus. You're gonna be okay. They can teach you how to control this. Your mother trained Gordon before Whitehall killed her." She winced at the pained look Skye gained when Ellie mentioned what had been revealed in the SHIELD reports. "You wanted to know who your parents were. I'm sure he can tell you stories." Skye responded by throwing up again. "Is this supposed to happen?"

"It's a little concerning," Gordon said. "I should really get her to see Lincoln."

Ellie nodded. "Skye," she said. Skye looked at her, her eyes unfocused and glassy. "Trust Gordon, okay?" Skye nodded. "I'll see you in a few weeks."

"Yeah," Skye said thickly.

Ellie kissed Skye's forehead, "Keep the faith."

"Keep safe," Skye said as tears slipped down the younger woman's cheeks. Ellie hugged her tightly. It made her nervous how warm she felt. She nodded at Gordon and in a flash, the two disappeared into the familiar blue light. Ellie took off again. HYDRA now could confirm that she survived the destruction of Project ASSP. With a growing wound, hidden by her jacket, Ellie took off into the night. She'd need to switch cars soon.

Skye's stomach churned again at the movement that Gordon made, but she managed to notice that they somehow come to be somewhere completely different. She shut her eyes tightly, fighting against the nausea as she came to realize that Gordon had the power to teleport. That combined with the fact that she hadn't slept since before they left for Hawaii made Skye stumble forward, blacking out for a second. Gordon caught her and lifted her into his arms quite easily. Her body finally registered how cold she really felt. She shivered, desperately wanting to get warm, but the temptation to sleep pulled her body into darkness. It quite honestly felt like she had the worst flu of her life and the few hours of sleep she managed to catch between Hawaii and now did not help things.

"What's up, Gordon?" came a voice from somewhere above her as she felt herself being lowered upon a soft mattress.

"This is Skye. She was accidentally put through terragenesis at the old ruins of San Juan. We think she caught an infection prior to or immediately after."

"Oh shit." She heard the panic in that voice as footsteps came closer to her.

Skye turned over on her side and retched in response. She felt guilty as vomit splattered to the ground. Someone stroked her hair as she dry heaved again. Tears started to trickle down her cheeks as fear started to overtake her. She tried to remember everything Ellie and Tasha ever taught her about fear, but she quickly felt as if she was fighting a losing battle. "You're gonna be okay, I promise," came the voice.

Skye opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of a handsome man around her age before her brain registered the light. She groaned and shut her eyes again. Everything seemed to be moving too quickly and she didn't understand any words that were coming out of anyone's mouth. _Where_ had Ellie gone and why did her body hurt so much?

People murmured above her as someone else shouted at her. The tremors in the earth grew stronger and she kept trying to pull the buzzing back inside herself until she felt a pinch of a needle and Skye knew no more.

Coming back into consciousness, she noticed her nakedness from the scratchiness of the sheet against her skin. This did nothing to comfort her as her memories were returned to her of the night before.

"What happened? Why can't I move?" She asked in a panic, looking around.

Gordon smiled and for some reason Skye felt calmer. "We apologize for doing it this way. You caught a very aggressive form of the flu during your transition last night and due to the terrigenesis, your body became unable to fight it off correctly without aid. From what we could tell, you began to hallucinate which set off your power."

"I don't even know what my power is," Skye said. "Is it dangerous?"

Gordon sat down in a chair next to her bed. "You can manipulate molecules. It seems that you have a natural proficiency for manipulating the molecules in the earth, which can cause Earthquakes."

Skye's eyes went wide, "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. Did anyone get hurt?"

A man came over and started checking her vitals. She vaguely remembered him from the night before. "Yes," The man said somberly.

Skye looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I can leave…"

"You need not worry. _You_ were the only person who got hurt. Even with such a high fever, you instinctively shifted the power into yourself to prevent others from being hurt. Part of the reason why we sedated you and are running you through tests is because of that. You tried to stop the tremors, am I correct?" Skye shrugged, her memories of the night before a complete blank.

Another man came in, younger. "You have broken capillaries and stress fractures from your fingers to your clavicle," the man explained. "Turning your power in on yourself is dangerous. You could have died. Luckily, the damage doesn't seem that bad. We're working on healing the arms as quickly as possible, but we needed to keep them completely still during that process."

"What about the rest of me? Why can't I move?"

The man took a deep breath. "We're transitioning you. You went through the terrigen mist by accident. After people like us transform and gain our powers, our bodies need time to adjust. The transitioning process does that in fast forward." The man smiled warmly. "I'm Lincoln, by the way.

"What is this place? Where am I?" Skye wondered.

"This is where all Inhumans live," Gordon said. "It's a small community we like to call 'Afterlife'. Once you're transitioned and trained on how to use your power, you will be welcome to stay as long as you like, but you won't be required to stay here."

"Which reminds me," Lincoln said. "Can you take me back to my apartment? I have a shift in an hour."

"Of course," Gordon said. "Alisha can finish Skye's transition. Can you go get her?"

Lincoln left the room and came back with a woman who had hair as red as Natasha's. "Skye, this is Alisha. Alisha, this is Skye." Gordon said. "I'll be back in just a few minutes."

After the men left, Alisha sat down in the seat Gordon once occupied, checking the monitors surrounding Skye. "I bet this is pretty freaky, huh," Alisha said.

"I wasn't exactly expecting all of this," Skye said, her voice wavering.

"No matter how prepared you are for it, I don't think any of us expected what we received after terrigenesis," Alisha noted.

"So everyone here…"

"Yeah, pretty much everyone who lives here has gone through terrigenesis. We all have jobs within the community. We're in the middle of nowhere so we're forced to be self-reliant," Alisha explained.

"That's … kinda cool," Skye said. She wanted to ask Alisha what her power did, but figured it was rude to ask.

"A lot of us were kinda surprised when they announced last night that you had gone through terrigenesis." Alisha noted. "Most of us don't go through it in such an old-school method. We're mostly exposed to the mist in a controlled setting, then immediately processed rather than doing it in a cave."

"I tried to stop HYDRA from turning it into a weapon, It didn't exactly work." Skye said.

Alisha gained a dark look. "A noble cause," she practically growled. She smiled a second later though. "Sorry, HYDRA's not the happiest of topics around here. They… find us fascinating." Skye remembered Whitehall's words about discovery and shuddered, or at least she did from the neck up.

"Of course, you also know Ellie, which wins you a lot of favor with people around here. Ellie always tells us stories about you when she comes for a meeting or a visit, so it was an additional shock that the Skye from the stories is -" Alisha seemed to start a thought, then stop herself and recover. "an Inhuman." Skye filed it away as a break as Alisha changed the subject, continuing to chat with her about innocuous things, as if Skye wasn't paralyzed on the table while they finished transitioning her.


	10. The Emergency and the Encounter

Steve couldn't sleep. It had been an eventful day. After Ellie and Sam left, Steve _started_ for Brooklyn, only to find Bucky in front of the tower, staring up and looking somewhat lost. The rest of the day had been a flurry of activity. Bucky, it seemed, regained a majority of his memories from before the war and his programming almost broken down completely. Bruce called the Avengers' doctor, Doctor Cho, who spent _hours_ examining Bucky. It hurt Steve to an almost physical degree to see the number of broken bones and scars that Bucky accrued over the last seventy years. Bucky was patient through it all, showing no hint of the Soldier, though both Steve and Natasha refused to leave the room that Bucky was in.

Finally, Cho left, repeatedly stating that she was on vacation goddamn it and to stop calling her. Tony then looked over Bucky's arm, using JARVIS along with a surprising number of tiny cameras to check for any booby traps that might have been put in place. There were multiple traps, and disarming them took several more hours. Finally, they determined that Bucky was alright, if a little malnourished and suffering the effects of long-term sleep deprivation. They sedated Bucky and restricted him to Steve's quarters in the spare bedroom.

Steve turned over, fighting to find a comfortable position. Despite the precautions, Steve's mind couldn't settle. Steve sent Ellie an email, which had gone unanswered, causing Steve to worry. What had been so important that Ellie lied to them about where she went?

"Captain, Ellie is outside your door. She is unconscious and in distress. Please hurry," JARVIS announced. Steve leapt out of bed and into the hall before JARVIS could continue. The sight in front of him fueled his fears. Ellie lay face-down with her long, dark hair splayed loosely around her. "Get Bruce," Steve said as he carefully turned her over. He checked her airway and nearly cried when he discovered that she wasn't breathing.

"He has already been contacted," JARVIS said as Steve started CPR.

The elevator opened and Bruce rushed out. "What happened?" Bruce asked, opening an AED machine.

"I don't know," Steve heard the strained whine in his own voice, every part of him tense as he felt Ellie's ribs breaking as he pumped her heart. Ellie couldn't die now, not like this.

"Hold on, let me," Bruce said. He laid down the pads. He efficiently attached the leads and pressed a button. Ellie's body arched once and Bruce felt for a pulse. "Got her pulse back." He checked her breathing before putting a portable oxygen mask on her.

Bucky. His thoughts went back to his apartment for a second where Bucky was sleeping. The Avengers questioned him about what he remembered about his time in HYDRA the previous afternoon and evening, but Bucky clearly didn't remember his daughter. Ellie suddenly gave a gasping breath, bringing Steve back to present, her body arching upwards as her eyes opened, her eyes glassy and unfocused, pulling off the mask despite Bruce's attempts to stop her.

"M.S.I," Ellie gasped, in between breaths. Two of the overhead lights exploded. "M.S.I. Too much… can't." She started seizing and Steve tried to recall what to do in that situation.

Bruce, thankfully, sprang into action, timing the seizure and checking that her airway was clear as she came out of it. Bruce also seemed to know what Ellie's words meant, since he nodded and muttered, "she'll have to burn it off." Bruce uncapped the vial and put it under Ellie's nose.

Ellie finally stirred and blinked, "Tasha?" she asked looking around blindly and slurring her words. She sounded almost drunk. "Tasha. So many. Too bright. Can't control it." The elevator doors opened and Natasha and Tony both entered the hallway, neither looking like they had been asleep when JARVIS alerted them to the problem.

Bruce grabbed Ellie's hands "Ellie? Can you hear me?" he called in a loud voice. Ellie didn't seem to hear it. She seemed to be looking at nothing, gasping for air as she whimpered at some unseen force. "Ellie, can you squeeze my hands?" Steve glanced at Ellie's hands and saw no change in her grip. His brain then registered that one of her arms had gone violet at some point from her fingertips to her shoulder.

"What's going on?" Natasha demanded. She drew in a hissing breath as she saw the purple arm.

"She said M.S.I.," Steve said, terror and confusion setting in. He didn't understand. He prayed that mean something to Bruce? Could she be dying right in front of him? Could Bruce help her? Ellie pulled off the mask again and started to whisper words that not even Steve could hear.

Natasha cursed in Russian and paled. She dug a phone out of her pocket and scrolled through something for a second before putting it to her ear. Steve could hear it ringing and was too stressed not to listen in. "Yeah?" A sleepy voice finally answered. Natasha watched the elevator close.

Bruce, meanwhile, worked rapidly, focused on Ellie in front of him. He put in two IVs into Ellie's good hand and arm, put the mask over her face and nose again, then started checking Ellie's reflexes, thankfully nodding more frequently than he frowned.

"Hank, it's Natasha." Natasha said quickly into the phone, partially pulling Steve's attention away from Bruce.

Steve could instantly hear the change in the man's tone. Steve could hear the rustle of the man getting dressed, "What happened?" he demanded.

"It's too much. It's too much," Ellie cried loudly. She writhed on the floor and Bruce held her down as best he could, trying to prevent her from hurting herself or dislodging sometime. Twice she tried to sit up. Tears were streaming down her face and her face scrunched in pain.

"It's bad, Hank. She says she got exposed to M.S.I.," Natasha said.

"Shit, she's seizing again," Bruce cursed. "Why the fuck did Cho go out of town this weekend?"

Steve no longer cared about the call. He rushed over to Ellie's side as his niece once again shook like a fish out of water. "How can I help?" he asked, staring down at the girl, terrified.

"Time the seizure and don't move her," Bruce said. Steve looked at his watch and marked the time as Bruce started digging through his bag.

"Clint, can you go get the portable stretcher from the med lab?" Bruce asked. Steve briefly wondered when Clint appeared, but the archer simply nodded and left.

"Can someone tell us what's going on?" Tony demanded. Steve didn't entirely know for sure how long Tony had been there. Everything blurred together as Steve tried to keep his precarious hold on his panic from overriding his senses.

At long last, Ellie stopped shaking. Steve sat with her head in his lap and his absentmindedly stroked her hair. Her eyes were open, but she didn't seem completely conscious.

Bruce took a penlight and started testing her pupil reaction. "Mutant Suppression Infection shouldn't be causing all this," he said, shaking his head.

Natasha hung up the phone. "She's hyper-sensitive," she said. "She keeps a pretty tight control on her powers, but the M.S.I. messes with that. Once her power gets out of control, she can hurt herself like this quite easily."

"If she knew she couldn't control her technopathy, why would she come here if she knew it would make her worse?" Bruce questioned. Bruce tilted her chin to open her airway and turned her on her side. Ellie, still out of it, stiffened at the strange hands manipulating her body, but relaxed when Steve started stroking her hair.

Natasha shrugged. "Ellie has a friend about two hours north of here who has a treatment procedure that worked in the past," she explained. "It's possible that she couldn't make it, given the extent of the injury. She must have gotten infected hours ago, though. Last time one of her colleagues needed to administer treatment, two hours passed and that purple color of her arm was barely three inches in diameter. What I don't understand is the delay."

"She's been infected before?" Bruce asked.

Natasha nodded. "Bringing down Project ASSP," Natasha said.

Tony stared at her. "Will you explain what's going on with AOL and Project ASSP _now_?" he asked in exasperation. Tony had apparently been begging Natasha to explain what Ellie's connection to Project ASSP since she mentioned it upon their first meeting. "We can't help her if we don't know what's going on and the only thing JARVIS has ever been able to pull up on that rumor were some old posts on IRC boards in the back in the early 90s. She never outright confirmed anything for fear that they would find her. Most conspiracy theorists don't even believe in it."

Natasha nodded, "Apparently, HYDRA ran Project ASSP from the background. Never anything official, but the CIA personnel that _did_ run it _were_ HYDRA," Natasha said. "Ellie couldn't say anything officially without them hunting her down, but she said she wanted assurances that she would have something to back her up if she ever needed to come out with all the papers she has on the project."

" _What. The. Hell_?" Bruce asked, drawing their attention away from the conversation. Ellie's hair fell just enough to the side to expose a piece of the markings on her neck. Bruce then pulled her hair further to the side and stared at the letters. "What the hell is this?"

"That's her name," Natasha said icily, her body completely tense. Steve knew the letters that Bruce now stared at. He hated them and clearly Natasha did as well. Steve didn't blame her.

"This isn't a name, it's a serial number," Bruce snapped, a roar forming in the undercurrent of his voice. His eyes started to bleed green and he took a couple of deep breaths before they returned to normal.

Tony scurried around and his own eyes went dark. "Holy shit," he said, reading the letters tattooed on the back of the woman's neck. "Who did that to her?"

"We can have this discussion at another time," Natasha snapped. Ellie squinted in spite of her already closed eyes. Steve could only sit by her head, stroke her hair and whisper into her ear to try to soothe her. She continued to mutter in a quiet voice that it was all too much.

Clint arrived with the backboard and Ellie whimpered as they transferred her to it, seemingly still mostly unaware of her surroundings. She stopped her murmurings about it all being too much and her eyes went wide. "I can see the source code," she breathed, then began seizing again.

Everyone stopped what they were doing as they stared at convulsing woman. Steve stood frozen, horrified by the events occurring before his eyes. Tears and spit flew from her mouth and eyes, her expression blank, almost as if she were dead. Almost as if Steve already lost her. It was the longest twenty-two seconds of Steve's life, but at long last, the seizure ended. Once they gave her time to recover Steve and Clint carried her out, with Bruce running ahead to prep the med bay.

The others followed close behind. "Bruce, don't sedate her." Natasha ordered sharply. Her eyes were wide with fear. Bruce nodded stiffly before the doors closed and silence settled in. Steve grew increasingly unsettled. Not just by whatever happened with his niece to cause all this, but by the fear that Natasha displayed. Before now, he hadn't been sure that Natasha had it in her to be afraid.

Clint kept looking down at Ellie with fear in his own eyes as he carried his end of the backboard. Steve could smell the underarm stench that screamed fear, Clint's body so tense that it practically screamed as Clint white-knuckled the backboard. Clint never looked so lost and Steve reminded himself of the day in Clint's apartment and the fact that Ellie saw herself as Clint's big sister. As they stood in the tension of the elevator, Ellie lay between them, gasping for air. She squinted for a second and seemed to come back to herself for a moment. "Steve?" she said, blinking in confusion, looking in his general vicinity but unable to focus on him. Steve adjusted his grip on the portable backboard to hold it with one hand, then reached down and slipped his hand in Ellie's and squeezed. "Zit safe?" she slurred.

"It's safe Ellie," Steve said immediately. "Trust me. You can trust me."

"There's too much information," she cried quietly. "I can't hold it in,"

The elevator arrived in the medbay and they carried her to a gurney that had been already prepped. "Just a little longer," Steve promised helplessly. They transferred her to a bed, and Bruce started hooking her up to machines. "You can do it."

Steve watched helplessly as Bruce cut off Ellie's shirt and pants, attaching even more wires to her. He claimed an out-of-the-way space near Ellie's head and stood there, stroking her hair. In her semi-conscious state, she leaned into Steve's touch, only partially aware of the activity around her.

"Please, Uncle Steve, make it stop," her cries sounded so young that Steve's heart broke at the sight of his niece, whose face tightened and scrunched and teeth clenched as she rode out the latest wave of information.

Ellie's breath hitched. "Please," she whispered. Then she seized again. Quite suddenly, a very large blue man bull-rushed in and pushed past them all with something that looked like an epi-pen. Before anyone could object, he jabbed it into Ellie's thigh.

Ellie's seizure stopped abruptly and she sat up, gasping and wide-eyed. Her eyes slid shut again almost immediately and she seemed to collapse forward and the large blue man quickly caught her and laid her back down on her back.

"What the hell did you give her?" Steve shouted, instantly getting between the man and his niece.

"Steve, it's okay. This is Doctor Hank McCoy," Natasha said, putting her hands up in a non-threatening gesture.

It took a few seconds for the name to register. Ellie talked about Hank some during their travels. He had been the one to save her from near death when she escaped HYDRA. From the way things sounded, the two were pretty close friends. Or they were as close as Ellie seemed to let anyone, save for Natasha, Clint, and Skye. "Apologies, Doctor McCoy," Steve said. "I suppose I should have recognized you from Ellie's stories."

"It's quite alright. It's nice to see people care so deeply for Eleanor," Hank said as he adjusted his glasses. He immediately started taking vitals and pulling vials of things out of his bag. "What I gave her should stave off the effects of the M.S.I for a little while. It's a temporary fix until she burns the M.S.I. off. Has she been sedated in the last twelve hours?"

"We're not sure," Steve said. "She showed up at my door a few minutes ago."

"Can we rewind a little bit and can someone explain to me what the hell is going on?" Tony asked sharply.

Hank adjusted his glasses before speaking. "In 1970, an organization in conjunction with the CIA decided to take the DNA of an enhanced soldier and a mutant to create a weapon of their own." Hank explained as he started pulling out equipment. Bruce started applying leads and wires to Ellie's chest and forehead. "After multiple failed attempts where the subjects died in utero, They… created Eleanor. After the success with her, they tried to replicate the process, but were unable to."

Natasha looked at Hank awkwardly. "Didn't Ellie tell you?"

Hank's impossibly blue and large eyebrows furrowed. "Tell me what?"

"Project ASSP was a HYDRA program," Natasha said darkly.

Hank's mouth thinned. "Can't say that's entirely unexpected," he said gruffly. "From the data dump that you sent out, we think there's evidence that they had ties to Weapons X program as well. Anyway, when she went through puberty and got her powers, _HYDRA_ realized that she would be a powerful, so they… made her into a weapon. We were able to rescue her about twenty years ago." Steve had the distinct impression that Hank was holding some of the information back, probably at Ellie's request.

"And what's with the letters on the back of her neck?" Tony asked.

Clint, Steve, Natasha, and Hank all gained dark looks. "All experiments, as you likely know, Mr. Stark, require a serial number for tracking purposes." Hank practically growled. "Eleanor received the label 'Living Experiment 4-19-77, Mutant classification'. They never succeeded before Ellie, nor after her. A miracle, I believe their reports called it. When the other experiments failed, they went to Plan B and kidnapped the children of people that they thought might be influential when HYDRA took over the world. To use them as leverage."

Tony looked absolutely horrified by the idea. "So what's this drug? M.S.I.?"

"When Eleanor started getting older," Hank explained. "They decided that they needed an insurance policy, just in case she got out of hand. So they developed a drug that suppresses our ability to control our powers. For most of us, we don't require constant control of our powers. For most who are affected by the drug, the loss of control is expressed in an outward fashion and would cause harm to others. However, Ellie always is in control of how much data she's exposed to. Her ability to filter through data is pretty spectacular.

"You should have seen her when we first found her twenty years ago. Even without everyone having their own cell phones and PDAs and the constant datastream, she experienced daily crippling migraines, nausea, and vertigo. We practically forced her to throw herself into controlling it for the sake of her own survival. When we learned about M.S.I., we learned that the drug takes away the control she has and she's exposed to all the data in a half mile radius of her. The good news is, as long as it's wireless, it filters itself out, but it can cause a good deal of damage to her if treatment is prolonged."

"What happens if it's not wireless?" Clint asked quietly.

Hank looked at Ellie fearfully. "Honestly, I have no idea what would happen. It's never happened before. It wouldn't be good."

"Is she going to be okay?" Steve asked in a rush. "She wasn't breathing when I found her."

"She should be alright with a few weeks of rest," Hank said. "I'll keep her monitored and I brought a few doses of the rescue medications for you to store here just in case. Eleanor seems to have a penchant for getting into trouble."

"Ellie's been able to avoid exposure to the drug because everyone thought she had been killed when she blew up Project ASSP," Clint said. "And you know what her exposure to M.S.I. probably means." He gave Hank a pointed which Hank seemed to understand.

"You're losing me," Tony spoke up. Leave it to Tony to need every possible detail explained to him.

Clint sighed. "Even HYDRA wouldn't just randomly be carrying this drug around. Like Dr. McCoy said, it doesn't work on some and it works too well for very few mutants. You wouldn't carry it unless you were attacking someone that you knew would react the way you wanted them to. They planned for Ellie to come after her."

"I think we've gotten a little off topic," Hank said, frowning at Ellie's pulse ox numbers. "Based on these numbers, I believe that she wasn't sedated, but I'd like to keep her on oxygen anyway. How many seizures did she have?"

"Three that we were present for. Steve found her on the floor in front of his apartment without a pulse, so it's a possibility that there were other seizures."

Hank nodded and he and Bruce walked to the side to discuss the technicalities of the case. The doors opened and Steve grimaced to see Sam enter the room. He had forgotten about Sam. "What the hell happened?" he exclaimed, rushing over to Ellie's side.

"Sam, calm down," Steve said.

"Calm down?" Sam shot back. "Steve, it's three am and I just got a call from an AI saying that my girlfriend was barely alive and to get over to the Tower now. This is not a time to calm down!"

"She's going to be alright," Steve said. "She just received treatment for her symptoms and we're working on getting her better."

Sam pinched the bridge of the nose, still tense. "What happened?" he asked.

Steve walked Sam through the events of the early morning, the stillness from Ellie derailing the tale a few times as they watched Hank or Bruce running tests on Ellie's unconscious form. Steve and Sam watched as Ellie's eyes move rapidly under her closed lids. "Is that another seizure?" Steve asked, panicked. Sam stiffened.

Hank went over to check her and shook his head. "She's just dreaming."

"I wonder what she's dreaming about," Sam said, voicing the others thoughts without meaning to.

Steve returned to his quarters, exhausted. Between Bucky, who they sedated around midnight, and Ellie, who showed up around 2:30 AM, Steve had only gotten a couple hours of sleep. Steve checked the spare room, hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep but he spotted Bucky, sitting up in bed and blinking groggily. Steve glanced at the clock and cursed. 9 AM.

"Steve?" Bucky asked, distrustfully. "... wasn't a dream?"

Steve sighed. "No, Bucky, it wasn't."

Bucky's eyes went wide. "I killed all those people," he said in horror. "I couldn't… I didn't have any control. I had to watch…" Bucky seemed a little out of it, still groggy from the sedatives, and in all honesty Steve didn't know how to tell Bucky about Ellie.

"Do you remember…" Steve started.

Bucky cut him off, his eyes shooting wide in wild panic as he stood in a rush. "Becca. They have Becca, Steve. They de-aged her somehow, but I remember her. I tried to get her out, but they caught us."

Steve stood up to meet him. "No, no they don't." Steve said, his heart breaking. It would be easier if it was Becca.

"What are you talking about," Bucky said. "I remember her."

"Bucky, I'm not sure how to tell you this, but that wasn't Becca," Steve said.

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows, his panic ebbing as he sunk back onto the bed. "How would you know?" he asked.

"Because the girl you saw is your daughter," Steve said.

"HYDRA never used me for anything like that," Bucky said. "Steve, I think I would have remembered something like that."

"Apparently science has advanced enough that sex isn't necessary," Steve said. "From everything Ellie tells me, nothing like that happened."

"Oh," Bucky said he sat on the bed in dead silence for a moment. "So… a daughter."

"Yeah," Steve said. "She's pretty amazing. A lot like her father."

"Steve…" Bucky said slowly. "If I remember her, HYDRA had her."

"She got out shortly after she turned seventeen. I'm not gonna lie - the stories she has about her childhood are horrifying, but she's okay now."

"You can't imagine what they're capable of, Stevie," Bucky said hollowly. "Horrifying doesn't even begin to describe it. God, Stevie, it's all my fault. I should have gotten her out."

"You couldn't have done anything, from what I heard," Steve said, trying to comfort his friend.

"That doesn't make anything better!" Bucky roared. Steve tensed, despite himself, as Bucky's eyes went cold. "I'm her father Stevie. You know what my father did to Becca and I. I always promised myself that I would never make my kids feel the way that my Pa made me feel. Why would she want to see someone like me? I'm her father. I should have been able to take care of her."

"That's not fair," Steve said. "He walked away. You were dragged." Bucky remained silent and Steve stared at him, shocked to see tears streaking down his old friend's face. "She's been looking for you for the last twenty years," Steve pressed quietly. "Buck, she's been trying to get you out. She's the reason why we were able to follow you all over Europe. She's not angry with you. She just wants you safe. And if last night is any indication, there isn't much she won't do."

Bucky stiffened, jolting himself out of his self-loathing. "What happened?" he asked swiftly.

"I'm… sorry?" Steve said, mentally cursing himself. He wanted to try to ease into this.

"Steve, the last time you looked like that was after your Ma died. What happened?"

"We're not really sure," Steve said. "She's okay now, but she's still pretty sick. She hasn't really been conscious since she got here last night, so we're kind of working with assumptions and pieces of the puzzle."

"Can I… see her?" Bucky asked. It was one of the only times in his life that Steve had a hard time getting a reading on his friend.

"Of course," Steve said. "Come on, let's go."

The walk to medical was mercifully short and Bucky paused in front of the door. Steve stopped. Bucky barely tolerated the once-over Cho required the previous day. Even then, most of the checkup had been done in Steve's quarters, where Bucky didn't seem quite so tense.

It probably didn't help that Ellie lay in a bed in the middle of the room, her long dark hair splayed around her like a dark halo. She looked a lot younger than her thirty-seven years, and quite a bit like Becca, lying there like that.

"They used to tell me about her," Bucky said quietly. "I didn't know who they were talking about, but they'd tell me when she succeeded on a mission or when she learned a new skill. I don't remember how long she's been alive, but for however long that is, I've never even held her. Never even touched her."

"I'm sure if she woke up to her holding your hand…" Steve started. Bucky jolted forward, needing no formal invitation to the idea. Someone, Sam probably, placed chairs on either side of Ellie's bed. Bucky took one of them, his hand almost automatically sliding into his daughter's.

Ellie slept for a few merciful hours before she stirred again. During this time she developed a low-grade fever, which, according to Hank, allowed Ellie's body needed to physically burn off the drug to neutralize it. Thus, three hours after Ellie showed up at his door, she blinked up at them with glassy eyes and a fever of 102ºF.

Steve looked at Bucky, who seemed suddenly terrified to touch her, so Steve reached out to slip his hand in hers. The instant that he made contact, Ellie's eyes shot open and she leapt off of the bed, dislodging her oxygen, IVs, blood pressure cuff, and the heart monitor leads. She found the closest corner, probably on instinct, and curled into a ball.

Bucky reacted first, leaving the rest of them awkwardly staring at what grew to be an extremely private moment. He seemed to instinctively know how to approach her. A daughter meeting her father after decades of searching. "It's okay," Bucky said as he showed her both of his hands. Her eyes locked onto the metal one. "You're safe. We're not HYDRA."

Ellie blinked a couple times before recognition set in to her features, eyes widening and her lips parting. "D-dad?" she whispered.

Bucky nodded. "I'm here, baby girl."

"They found you?" she said asked, her eyes briefly focusing on Steve before they went back to staring at her father. She swayed a little. "You're okay? Please tell me you're okay?"

"I'm okay, baby girl. Will you let me take care of you?" Bucky slowly inched closer as Ellie swayed again.

"It hurts, Dad. I can't stop it. Can you please stop it?" she asked breathily.

"I can stop it," Bucky said. "Just trust me." Ellie fell sideways and Bucky caught her instantly. He effortlessly lifted her up and carried her back to bed. He set her down, but continued to hold her hand and stroke her hair, refusing to let go.

Bruce stood, waiting, and instantly went to work reconnecting everything. When he re-inserted the IV, Ellie's eyes opened wide in panic. "I don't want another treatment," she pleaded instinctively. Steve watched Bucky's face darken and his jaw clench. Steve hated it himself. God only knew what HYDRA had done to his niece.

Clint paced around her as Hank pushed a mild muscle relaxant and pain medication into her IV. Sam, Steve, Bucky, Clint, and Natasha refused to leave as they all had eyes fixed on the sleeping woman. None of them talked, all of them were lost in thought and sitting on whatever surface that they could find. After a while Sam migrated to a chair on the other side of Ellie's bed. Bucky regarded him for a few moments then went back to staring at his daughter.

Hank drifted in and out of the room, keeping an eye on Ellie's vitals. After a couple of hours, Ellie finally stirred. She opened her eyes slowly as everyone fought the urge not to crowd her. She smiled as she caught sight of Bucky and Sam. "Did I get him?" she asked groggily. She shifted and visibly winced, hands instinctively going to her head. Everyone seemed to let go of the breath that they had been holding since the small hours of that morning.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked cautiously. He took one of her hands in both of hers and Ellie squinted at him. She gave him a pained smile and Steve realized how easily Ellie seemed to be able to smile at Sam these days.

"I'm okay," she said, her eyes closing again. "'m fine."

"Really?" Sam asked, clearly not believing a word she said.

"My head kinda hurts," she admitted. "How did I get here?" she asked curiously.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Steve said.

JARVIS dimmed the lights without anyone asking him to and Ellie cracked open her eyes and started to sit up. "You know the rules," Hank chastised her.

Ellie's eyes went wide as she registered the other mutant in the room. "Hank? When did you get here?"

"Natasha called me at 2am because you weren't breathing and your entire arm had gone purple," Hank said with a small growl in his voice.

"Hank..." Ellie started.

"Why do you always have to take the risk?" he begged. "Why is it always life or death?"

From the tone and pattern of the discussion, Steve thought that this argument had been hashed and rehashed multiple times over the last twenty years. "Someone has to protect you all. You have no idea what's out there," Ellie said, briefly releasing Sam's hand to raise her bed. "You don't _want_ to know what's out there."

Hank took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Who needed rescuing this time?" he asked softly.

"Sharon Carter," Ellie said. Steve's eyes went wide.

"Sharon's powered?" he asked in shock.

Ellie shook her head. "No. Special circumstances," she said too quickly. She turned her head toward her father and stared at him for a second before blushing and looking away. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to be here," she said to the nonagenarian.

Bucky sat back and frowned. "Why wouldn't I be?" he growled.

"I just... I thought that you wouldn't..." Ellie couldn't seem to find the words. Steve recalled the conversation the two of them exchanged while on the road. Clint and Natasha very quietly left the room. Steve pursed his lips but let it go. They all seemed to realize at once that this seemed to be a private moment, though Sam refused to move from his spot next to Ellie. Steve excused himself silently and Hank followed.

"She should be alright," Hank said. "Have Natasha call me if anything else goes wrong. Make sure she stays in bed for the next three days no matter what she says, and make sure she doesn't overdo it over the next couple of weeks. She's going to have a hard time controlling her powers for the next few days."

"I will," Steve assured him, a little confused at Hank's leaving as the large, blue man walked calmly down the hall, around a corner, and out of sight. Steve followed him, but by the time he turned the corner, no one was there.

"JARVIS, where did Hank go?" Steve asked.

"He is no longer in the building, Captain. However, sir would also like me to inform you that there is a quinjet landing on the Tower that requires your attention. Perhaps you would like to go meet them?"

Steve nodded and went to the elevator. JARVIS took him to the landing pad where Tony stood with Agent Coulson, Agent May, Sharon, and two agents that Steve recognized but couldn't recall their names. "Captain Rogers," Coulson greeted him. "As I was just explaining to Mr. Stark here, we need to speak with Ellie."

"And again, I need to know why," Tony said, arms crossed. "Avengers don't work for SHIELD any more."

"She's suspected of kidnapping," Coulson said uncomfortably.

"What?" Steve asked. "Who?"

"Agent Skye," Coulson said a little stiffly. "Skye needed to be quarantined after being exposed to something... alien. Apparently Ellie broke her out. Sharon says she saw Ellie with Skye before she went to bed."

"Half-byte's missing?" Tony asked, eyebrows raised.

"I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation," Clint growled. "One that can wait."

"You can see her," Steve said carefully. "But everyone needs to stay calm and it has to be brief. She's had a rough couple of days and she's still in the medlab, recovering."

"Is it possible that she's been infected?" Coulson asked stiffly.

Steve shook his head. "No, this is something different. If Skye experienced what Ellie just went through you'd know it. Ellie seized at least four times last night if not more."

"Bloody hell," the small scientist of the group said. Jemma, Steve remembered at last.

"Is she alright?" Coulson asked.

Steve nodded, "All signs point to her making a full recovery." He hesitated, allowing Coulson and SHIELD to see Ellie may ease tension between the two groups if Ellie broke Skye out of containment. "I suppose you can see her, but I do have a condition. You can come with us, but you have to relinquish your weapons."

Sharon instantly handed over a k-bar knife and a sidearm. Coulson did the same. May and one of the unknown agents seemed reluctant to do so. "Hand them over, Bobbi," Clint barked.

Bobbi handed over a sidearm, a knife, and two sticks that looked rather lethal. May also handed over a knife and after a quick check from Natasha, a sidearm. Neither May nor Bobbi looked happy. The last agent handed over a small pen knife. Clint and Natasha both looked at her suspiciously.

"I'm a scientist, not a field agent," the woman said in a clipped, British tone that reminded Steve of Peggy.

Steve nodded, "Follow us, please," he said stiffly.

Entering the medlab, Steve frowned at the sight of his niece in the hospital bed, though she smiled weakly and gazing happily between her father and Sam.

The agents all stiffened when they saw Bucky. "Captain?" Coulson asked weakly. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Director, meet Bucky Barnes," Steve said with a stiff smile. Ellie gave Bucky a weak reassuring squeeze of her hand as she herself stiffened and tried to reposition herself in front of Bucky. If the situation wasn't so tense, Steve would have laughed that even in her weakened state, Ellie seemed ever prepared to protect people at a moment's notice, even after last night.

"Barnes?" May asked. "That's impossible."

"Before a few years ago, people would say the same thing about Captain America. HYDRA -"

"HYDRA brainwashed me," Bucky said. He sat stiff as a board and Ellie kept trying to shove him behind her. A few tears slipped down her cheeks. Bucky spotted her tears and relaxed a little, getting between her and the SHIELD agents despite her protests as he wiped away the tears.

"So you found him and broke him out of the brainwashing?" Coulson asked.

"He arrived night before last," Steve said. "He's already broken most of the brainwashing himself."

"Smithsonian Exhibit helped a little with that," Bucky said gruffly. "World Tour did too."

"We still have to run through trigger words and run some tests, but we've been a little busy since Ellie showed up," Tony said. "With what the two of them have been through, I think they deserve a little down time before we start the interrogation."

"Did you two know each other from... before?" Coulson asked curiously.

Ellie shook her head. "They never allowed me anywhere near him," she said quietly.

"Then..."

"Maybe it's time that I introduce myself properly," she said. "According to recent discoveries, my full name is Eleanor Rebecca Barnes."

Everyone whirled around at that one. Bucky and Steve started to look a little misty, while Clint, Natasha, and Tony all looked a little surprised. All the agents' eyes went wide and their jaws dropped. "So you're..." Coulson started. Steve could see his brain working, putting things together.

"HYDRA wanted to create a weapon from scratch," Ellie said stiffly. "What better way than to create one from the DNA of their own Winter Soldier." Bucky paled at that. "Sorry, Dad," Ellie added quietly.

"I'm sorry, but how could HYDRA create … I mean how did nobody notice?" Jemma asked, curling her lip at the thought.

Ellie took a couple deep breaths and Steve felt the urge to stop her from speaking. But he knew that Ellie probably needed to get this out and try to get SHIELD to understand the realities of this new world that they all landed in. The realities of a world Ellie lived in for far longer than any of the rest of them. "Ever heard of Project ASSP?" Ellie asked.

Bobbi and Jemma both furrowed their eyebrows. "The Internet rumor?" Bobbi asked. "The rumor that the CIA had their own version of the Red Room?"

"I spread that rumor twenty years ago," Ellie practically whispered, pain practically etched into her features. "Most of you at SHIELD probably wondered at one point or another why Coulson trusted me so completely. My former affiliation of HYDRA - they raised me to be a weapon within Project ASSP. I escaped, barely, with my life and nothing else. Spreading the rumor on the DarkNet gave me liberty to seek out the few others who escaped HYDRA's grasp and bring the Project down once and for all."

"I still don't see what all of this has to do with Skye," May said.

"I spent my childhood being a weapon for a spy organization. I'd rather be dead than see someone go through that again. Especially not Skye. I saw the files. I know Ward kidnapped her and took her to San Juan. I know you locked her away after her exposure to the Obelisk."

"We would never-" Bobbi objected, sounding horrified at the implication.

"Please," Jemma begged. "Please tell us where you took her. We have to eradicate the virus before -"

"It's not a virus," Ellie snapped, removing her hands from Sam's and Bucky's. "It's not something to be eradicated. It's not bad or evil or..." she stopped and coughed hard. An alarm sounded behind her and Steve moved to stop the interrogation before Ellie held up a hand and took an uneasy breath before continuing. "She's not broken," she said pale-faced.

"So you admit that you took her," Coulson said, stone-faced. "You kidnapped her."

"Kidnapping requires an unwillingness to go from the person in question," Ellie said. "She came willingly enough. Even gratefully."

"Why?" May asked. "Why would you take her away from us? We were just trying to help her."

"When I found her, she had been left alone in a glass cage," Ellie said coldly. "Regardless of your intentions, she was alone."

"We were a little busy," Bobbi said. "One of our own just died. San Juan, all but destroyed by an earthquake. Most of us were either away on clean-up or catching a few hours of shut eye before going back to it."

Ellie, Natasha, and Clint suddenly looked irrate to Steve's amazement. They were terrifying as a group when they were all facing you down. "You have no idea-" Ellie stopped, shaking and coughing.

"She's always been alone," Clint continued for Ellie as she started coughing again. Bucky pressed the oxygen mask to his daughter's face and started quietly coaching her through breathing. "The four of us all have that in common. You have no idea what it's like to start out your life like that. So when we all met, ten years ago, we all promised each other that we wouldn't have to face anything alone again. That's why Ellie broke her out." Ellie nodded.

"If she didn't want her to be alone, where the hell is she," May demanded.

"She's with people who don't think that the change she went through is something to be eradicated or fixed," Ellie wheezed, removing the mask despite Bucky's protests. "It's a slippery slope from investigation to experimentation to extermination. I've seen it before. I won't let it happen again." She stopped, gasping for air and intermittently coughing.

"Enough," Bucky said, turning to his daughter and holding onto both of her shoulders. "Ellie, stop this."

Ellie scrunched her face in obvious pain. "I'm okay," she grunted, her voice half an octave higher than it normally sounded.

Jemma started towards her on instinct and Sam and Bucky leapt to action. Bucky stood, looking menacing, placing his body subtly between Jemma and Ellie while Sam got between Bucky and Jemma in an instant. "Don't touch her," Sam growled. Bucky stiffened and looked darkly at Jemma.

Jemma paled and backed off. May and Bobbi both reached for their absent weapons. "We should take this outside," Natasha said stiffly. Steve started a little. Natasha had been so quiet that he had forgotten about her.

Natasha and Clint both pushed the SHIELD agents out the door. Steve glanced between Bucky and Sam, who were worrying over an exhausted-looking Ellie, and Natasha and Clint. Finally, he decided to go out and watch the verbal battle heat up. He carefully considered all that Ellie and SHIELD said and wanted to hear Clint and Nat give them all a verbal spanking for what they did. He liked Skye, she had a kind quality to her that few had in this era. The group went to common room located across from medical before Coulson turned.

"Do you really think so little of me that I'd allow _anyone_ to hurt Skye?" Coulson asked.

"She nearly died last year because of your actions." Clint said. "By your own admission, she's been kidnapped twice and now she's been put through an extremely traumatic experience. Abandoned by people that she trusted."

"Stop being dramatic, Barton," May said.

"Do you have _any_ idea what it takes for someone like her to trust people within a group like SHIELD?" Natasha snapped. "To trust the system? The girl's been screwed over by the system her entire life."

Coulson had the decency to look a little guilty. "I thought she could trust the system," Coulson said quietly. "I've been trusting the system for my entire career. I _never_ thought that HYDRA-"

"Forget HYDRA. This has nothing to do with HYDRA. Skye's issues started _long_ before she ever had anything to do with SHIELD," Clint said.

"Because of the SHIELD protocol," Natasha noted. "Skye never lived in one foster home for more than six months. It taught her the hard way to never put down roots, to never trust people."

"We all know the foster system's tough to get through," Bobbi said. "I survived it myself. I know you did, Clint. It's not an unusual story."

"You were adopted after two years," Clint said. "I ran away after five and joined the Circus. Skye had to deal with the system for sixteen years. If you could hear some of the stories that Skye's told…" Clint trailed off for a minute, Steve noting how angry Clint looked and making a note to ask him about later, once SHIELD left. "Honestly, it's not my story to tell, but she's been through the worst of the system and then some."

"Did Skye ever tell you how she erased herself?" Natasha asked curiously.

Coulson jerked back, his eyes wide and his mouth opened. "No," he said. "I never - I never thought to ask."

"When we found Skye, she was in an abusive foster home in the Bronx," Natasha said. "She took punches for the other kids, protecting them from the father. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything in days, giving what little that she could get to the other kids. She had broken bones, a punctured lung, and a concussion." Coulson eyes darkened, May and Bobbi looked horrified, and Jemma went very pale. "Ellie heard the foster dad kicking her ribs in from three floors down and immediately went up and put him into a wall."

"He may have also fallen down the fire escape a half-dozen times before the cops arrived." Clint said through gritted teeth. Steve stayed silent, despite his confusion.

"After, Ellie never left Skye's side. She got her in admitted to some exclusive private hospital because someone owed her a huge favor. It took three days before Skye woke up again."

"God," Coulson breathed. Bobbi comforted Jemma, who started crying, and even May looked a little teary-eyed.

"When she did, Skye asked for her laptop and immediately deleted herself from every system that she could find. Ellie helped her a little, I think, and the rest is history. When we heard Skye's story, she became our baby sister."

"All of us had gone through enough experiences to know what it's like to be alone in this world," Natasha said. "Most people aren't ever truly alone. Most people have someone who has their back. You all have no idea what it's like to grow up like that. That's why she's our baby sister and that's why we trust that Ellie knows what she's doing, sending Skye away."

Coulson pursed his lips for a moment, then nodded. "Okay," he said sadly.

"What?" May asked sharply. "No, we're not leaving without her."

"I think we need to defer to Skye's family in this case. They know her best. We wouldn't even know how to begin helping her. We can wait a few days before we talk to her."

Sam came out of medical then, his fists and jaw clenched, mouth in a deep frown. "She wants to speak to you," he growled when he approached the SHIELD agents. May immediately started forward, and Sam stopped her. "Just Coulson."

"Are you sure?" Steve asked. Natasha and Clint looked pissed.

"She's insisting on it. Says she _has_ to talk to him," Sam said, his lip curling. "She's already tried to walk out of medical twice."

Steve, Sam, Natasha, and Clint all looked at each other, silently conversing on the matter. "Five minutes," Clint finally said.

Steve nodded and led Coulson and Sam back to the medical ward. Steve's eyes went wide, surprised to see Ellie on a nasal cannula rather than the mask. She was actually sitting up as well, talking to Bucky with a small smile. "Dad, seriously, I'm _fine._ I can handle Coulson."

"I'm sorry, about earlier," Coulson said.

Ellie waved the apology away. "It happens. I just got a little excited." She paused, looking at Coulson so hard Steve genuinely wondered if Ellie had laser vision or something. "Look, I get that you care for Skye. She makes it easy. She comes off as kind and empathetic and accepts people as they are, but she's just broken enough that people like you want to fix her. The problem is that she doesn't need fixing. She's fine just the way that she is."

Coulson cleared his throat, the way that he looked at Ellie and his slowed, articulate speech gave away that he obviously chose his words carefully. "Is she okay?"

"The people that I took her to will know how to keep her safe and they'd rather die than see any harm come to her. They're her mother's people and until yesterday they thought that Skye was dead."

Coulson sighed. "Skye's still an Agent of SHIELD."

"Come on Coulson," Ellie said, cocking her head and smiling a little. "We both know that the world is bigger than that now, or rather that it always has been and the rest of the world is finally waking up to that fact. We both know that Skye probably won't be returning to SHIELD. Not in the capacity that she'd wish to. I promise you that she'll email you as soon as she can and in the meantime, I promise you that we'll make sure she'll end up somewhere where she's happy."

"Fine. Can I get an update perhaps in a few weeks?" Coulson asked.

"We can meet up some time after Christmas," Ellie agreed.

Coulson left and Ellie closed her eyes and slumped backwards in exhaustion.

She gripped her father's hand tighter, fighting to open them again. Her father stroked her hair tenderly. "Sleep, baby girl," he said. "I'll be here when you wake up."


	11. The Zugzwang and the Zonk

When Ellie woke up again, she felt like she had run a marathon at some point (although when, she wasn't entirely sure). She wondered what had happened the night before, realizing that she remembered nothing after her showdown at the CIA. Had she been captured?

The bed was soft and the beeping around her indicated a probable medical center of some kind. The Avengers had a medical bay, as did the X-Men, but then so did HYDRA. She had no idea how to distinguish between the two with closed eyes and a lax body, but revealing her state of consciousness could reduce her advantage against the enemy.

"I just want to see if she's awake," came a voice quite close to her face.

"Tony, we told you -" Ellie struck out without registering the other voice. She opened her eyes, hearing a satisfying crunch and warm liquid covering her knuckles as her fist met a nose. She grabbed the closest sharp object she could find and prepared to battle the next person who came near her.

"I told you not to get too close," said the other voice. She recognized that voice. Her eyes flew open and she was met with the concerned faces of the Avengers. Sam and Bucky were sitting next to each other in chairs by her bedside, looking concerned and fighting not to pull her into their arms... Uncle Steve, Clint, and Natasha were looking rather amused, while Bruce was struggling with Tony, who was bent double and holding his nose as blood gushed out of it.

"She broke'd by dose!" Tony cried as Bruce applied a wad of tissues to the broken appendage.

Ellie was getting off the bed, pulling leads and wires off as she went, determined. "Lee, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea…" Sam said.

"Really?" Ellie asked, hissing as she pulled out her IV. "Why not?"

"Hank said you need to be monitored over the next few days to ensure that there are no lasting effects," Sam said.

Ellie shook her head. "There are none," she said with a surety that she did not entirely feel. "And I have a client who needs me on a retrieval." That was a lie, but they would never find that out. The second that she had found out that her father was Bucky Barnes, she had sent out an email that she was taking a vacation and not to contact her unless the situation was dire. That being said, she wanted to check on Skye and everyone else.

"You can't possibly go back to work like this!" Steve now joined in on the objection. "You're not even cleared by medical."

"And I should ignore the number of times in your file that you've ignored medical to go off and save people?" Ellie shot back. "You jumped 15 floors off the Triskellion and you just walked _that_ off. My clients' lives matter too. It's not all world destruction and HYDRA, Uncle Steve."

Steve said nothing, so Sam stepped forward. "Please stay, Lee,"

She turned back towards him, ready to tell him that that she didn't need anyone to take care of her. She had always been alone and knew how to take care of herself without needing anyone to help her out. But her words caught in her throat when she saw the look on her father's face.

"I'm _fine_ ," Ellie said quietly, feeling the need to get out of there. She looked around. Medical always made her… anxious. Something about the smell reminded her of her childhood.

"It's the antiseptic," Bucky said finally. "HYDRA uses the same brand. It took me this long to recognize it. It literally _smells_ like HYDRA in here." His words somehow registered to her brain. She tried to override her sense of fear with the knowledge that she was safe. Safe. Safe. Safe.

Clint and Natasha went stiff. Hell, everyone went stiff. "We're switching brands," Natasha said, leaving no room for negotiation. Ellie closed her eyes and inhaled through her mouth, trying to calm her nerves. Bucky was right, but that wasn't the only thing that gave her the feeling of ill ease in an infirmary. Suddenly a file search that she never intended to initiate exploded in her mind, causing her to stagger sideways. Mission reports from her youth about her training and enhancement. She had memorized them all, but seeing the pictures so vividly made her stomach roll.

"Ellie, are you alright baby girl?" Bucky asked. She wanted to scream from the pounding in her head, so intense that it was causing nausea. She hadn't had a blinding migraine like this since she was a teenager. Her lack of control was completely shot. "Ellie?" Bucky asked again. She doubled-over, vomiting bile.

"Woah," Clint said. Sam started gathering up her hair and she leaned against him without thinking about it.

"Migraine," Ellie ground out.

"I'll get Bruce," Steve said.

"'m fine," Elle murmured. "No more bed." She was still standing on her own recognizance, mostly. "Don't want to sleep any more."

Sam had his arms around her, so she started when there was a hand to her cheek. She opened her eyes, wincing at the photosensitivity that was coming on. Bucky was kneeling in front of her, peering at her face. "What if there was another place?"

Ellie hesitated, then nodded. "Your place or mine?" Sam asked. Sam technically had a guest room on one of the lower residential floors that had been claimed as 'his' indefinitely, but he also stayed on the couch of one of his friends in Harlem from time to time, and he still had a condo in D.C.

"Ours," Bucky said. Steve had told him the night before that he had space for Bucky.

Ellie shook her head, then blinked, breathing. "Really guys, I'm fine," she said, opening her eyes back up. She smiled, her head still killing her, but no one looked like they believed her. "Seriously, I've survived a lot worse." They didn't seem all too pleased to hear that revelation, particularly Bucky.

"I hear someone's out of bed who isn't supposed to be," Bruce said gruffly, striding into the room.

"She threw up," Sam said, gripping her tighter. "She says she's getting a migraine."

"Hank did say that this would be a possible side effect," Bruce said. "Ellie, you still with us?" he asked, forcing an eye open to shine a pen light at her eye. It felt like a knife.

"Jesus, Doc. I still need my eyes when all this is over," Ellie joked.

"That bad, huh?" Bruce said with a frown. "I don't think any of the triptans will touch this."

"Yeah," Ellie said. Everything started to sound louder than it should have. The drip of the IV, the fan, the hum of the monitors. "They go through my system too fast."

Bruce nodded. "We have some super-concentrated codeine Stark Industries made for Steve," he offered.

Ellie nodded tightly and nearly cried in relief when Bruce produced two pills and a large glass of water rather than a needle. She popped the pills and drained the glass.

"Can we get her out of here?" Sam asked.

"JARVIS, you're monitoring her, right?" Bruce asked.

"Yes sir," JARVIS responded, dimming the lights. "Vitals are within normal ranges. I've also been filtering non-essential data from the upper floors until Ellie recovers her control."

"Thanks J," Ellie said. Despite having been just woken up, she really wanted a change of clothes and to lay in bed. If Sam offered a cuddle, she wouldn't say no. Probably.

She stood a little straighter, starting to find her feet. "You okay?" Sam asked curiously.

"Feeling better," Ellie said with a tight smile. The migraine was still there and the data coming at her was just on this side of tolerable, but she no longer felt overwhelmed by it all. She blinked, realizing that she didn't remember anything past jumping out of a fourth story window with Sharon.

"How did I get here?" she asked, looking around.

They all looked confused. "Do you remember anything about yesterday?" Bruce asked cautiously.

She thought back. She remembered snippets. Pain. Fear. Some degree of calm. She remembered Coulson being there at one point. "Bits and pieces. Last time I was exposed to M.S.I., though, I blacked out the whole week after I recovered." She glanced over at Natasha now that she could see. "This was slightly better than Wade and Remy in that abandoned subway station in Chicago, right?" she said with a smile. Natasha didn't look impressed and Ellie let the smile drop. "How much trouble am I in?" she asked.

Natasha stared at her with folded arms. "How did you get exposed to M.S.I.?" she asked. Ellie winced. Oh yeah, she was in trouble.

Ellie gestured at Steve. "Carter was working directly under Louis Parker," she said. She paused, then looked at her shoes. "Parker was my handler," she said. "He reported to Wolfgang von Strucker back when Project ASSP was being run." Eyes went wide, mouths fell open. They all recognized that name at least. "Carter's been asked to work later and later of late. I knew that one day soon they were going to get her alone and…" her voice caught and tears formed in her eyes. She internally cursed, hating feeling vulnerable.

Bucky had stiffened, then immediately pulled Ellie into his arms. "I know," he said simply.

It suddenly hit her that there was finally someone in this world who understood the horror of what HYDRA had put them through. It was worse than hell. It was indescribable. But it was comforting to know that someone else had lived through it. She hugged her father back briefly, then broke out of it. "I couldn't have lived with myself if something happened to her. If something happens to anyone…" She suddenly remembered her original intentions. "I need to go," she said. "I can't stay here. Not like this," she said in a panic.

"Woah, woah," Clint said, stepping forward. "We can protect you. We _are_ the Avengers," he said. "You're safe."

"You have no idea, do you…" Ellie said, looking at her little brother. She ignored the migraine that was building and the data swirling in her brain. "You have no idea how deep HYDRA runs." She said. "They thought I was dead and that's the _only_ reason why I've been safe all these years. Because they didn't know that their weapon was still alive, and they'll kill you to get to me." Her breath quickened. "I can't stay. I'm a person," she sobbed.

"We all know you're a person," Natasha said calmly, taking a step forward.

"I'm not a weapon," she sobbed uncontrollably. "I'm a person. I don't want to go back."

Bucky was putting a hand up to someone outside of her tunnelling vision then grabbed her elbows and lowered her to the floor. "You don't have to run any more," he said. "We'll fight for you.

She shook her head. Gasping for air. "I need to get out of here," she said, getting up off the floor again.

"Okay," Bucky said patiently. "Where do you want to go?" he asked.

"I have a safe house," she said. "Up north of Norwalk."

"She keeps it stocked," Natasha said. "Away from neighbors, quiet…"

"We'll take some provisions and spend some time up there," Bucky said. "Just the six of us."

"Think you can spare three Avengers for a week?" Natasha asked.

"You're only thirty minutes away by helicopter if we need you," Bruce said with a shrug. "Though I'm not entirely comfortable about releasing her after four seizures."

"We'll keep in contact by phone. She's got medical equipment up there, just in case?"

Bruce gained an odd look on his face. "Do I want to know?" he asked.

Ellie smiled, her eyes still teary from her near-breakdown. "I've pulled a bullet out of Wade's head once or twice up there so he could come back to life." Everyone stared at her. "Mutants, am I right?" she said.

"I don't wanna know," Bruce said. "Just call me if anything changes."

It didn't take long for them to pack bags for the trip and soon they were on the highway, headed out of the city. Steve and Bucky both took window seats in the middle, Clint and Natasha took the front (Natasha drove, having been there before), and Ellie ended up falling asleep in Sam's arms in the back.

They only roused her when they pulled up to the house, which was really more of a two bedroom cabin that she used as a halfway house for anyone needing to heal up. It was off the grid and data around here was limited, so it was easier on her powers in times like this.

She tiredly opened the door to the cabin and immediately tensed up. "Someone's here," she whispered. Steve and Bucky pushed past her, instantly locating the closed bedroom door and forcing it open. Ellie ran passed them, "no," she said, realizing who was probably there. "Wait." She caught a glimpse of who was lying in the bed. "Wait, he's okay," she repeated, trying to assure her father and Uncle.

Bucky still looked like he was half a second away from killing the men in the bedroom and Steve didn't seem much better, but they both stepped aside. "Wade," Ellie greeted the man currently naked and chained to the bed, gagged. "Jean-Paul," she turned to the equally naked man standing over. "I think, if you could get dressed and join him in the living room, everyone would appreciate it." She shut the door and turned to her family. "Please," she said. "Sit anywhere. There should be food in the kitchen if Wade hasn't eaten it all.

The door opened, and a now dressed Wade and Jean-Paul walked out. "Why are you always ruining my fun, Ellie-Bellie?" Wade said. "Of course, I'm not above an orgy if you and your friends would like to join us. I mean, I've always dreamed of knockin' boots with Hawkeye and the Black Widow, and that offer for me to take you to bed is always open. Of course, this hunk of apple pie is more than enough to make my flag fly." Ellie buried her head in her hands. Maybe she'd just die of embarrassment.

Jean-Paul mercifully bent over and kissed Wade tenderly on the lips to shut him up. "This is my father, Bucky Barnes, and my Uncle, Steve Rogers," Ellie said. "Plus Sam Wilson, the Falcon."

"I've heard once you go black you never go back. Wanna try me on some time?" Wade said flirtatiously.

Sam, Steve and Bucky were still pretty tense. "Everyone, this is Jean-Paul Beaubier, known as Northstar, and Wade Wilson, though some call him Deadpool"

"It rhymes with no school…" Wade said. "Also-"

"We don't need the list, Wade," Ellie snapped.

"Damn," Wade said, glancing at Sam. "Someone needs to get laid. Boy toy not any good in bed?"

"I got shot with an M.S.I.-laced bullet two nights ago," Ellie revealed. That shut Wade up.

"Damn," Wade said, his eyes wide. Jean-Paul whistled low. Jean-Paul was lucky. He wasn't affected by M.S.I. Wade was, but he was only in trouble if he got seriously injured after exposure. Wade was immediately at Ellie's side, inspecting her. Bucky practically _growled_. "Oh calm down caveman, you don't scare me. I just want to make sure she's not lying when she says she's okay," he snapped. "She scared the crap out of me the first time she got shot. We were stuck in that Chicago subway station all night before we could get her out. I was there for most of it. You don't get to growl at me, father or no. Worse than Logan," Wade muttered going over her body with his eyes and deft hands. "You're not injured or anything? Maybe we should do a transfusion, just to be on the safe side?"

Ellie smiled patiently, bringing a hand tenderly to Wade's scared face. She loved his face and told him so regularly. When he was around friends he had no qualms about sporting his scars. Wade had been among very few who had seen Ellie's. "I'm okay, Wade, I promise. Hank apparently even signed off."

"Well if Big Blue signed off you… who wants ice cream?" Wade asked.

Jean-Paul rested a hand on Wade's shoulder. "I think we should head back to the school Wade," he said. "Clearly Ellie must rest." Wade stiffened, then nodded. "Ellie, could you help me with the bags?"

Ellie smiled, "Of course," she said. She grabbed two of the bags in the bedroom, clearly the two men had planned a weekend getaway and headed out the front door, leaving it open.

"You care about her," her Uncle Steve said to Wade.

"Of course I do," Wade said somberly. "She's … easy to love. Everything she does is for us. I don't think I've ever seen her spend a moment on herself in the fifteen years that I've known her. She's never let anyone take care of her. I honestly don't think she has it in her. And she's like us. Those of us who were experimented on, we can't keep still. There's always going to be the inherent need to keep moving. There always will be. We don't know who took us…"

"It was HYDRA," Bucky said.

"You know it's rude to eavesdrop," Jean-Paul said. "You sure you're okay?" Jean-Paul did look rather worried about her.

Ellie smiled good-naturedly. "I'm _fine_ , Jean-Paul."

Jean-Paul gave her an odd look. "If you're ever not, you know you have a hundred people who'd be there for you in a second."

"Thank you, Jean-Paul," she said, nodding her acknowledgement as diplomatically as possible.

"So, you found your father?" Jean-Paul asked.

"I did," Ellie said.

"Do they know?" he pressed

Ellie looked away. "I don't want them to," she said quietly. "This… scared them. I can only imagine how they'll react to the rest of it. They'll probably want to lock me away in the tower and never let me out again."

"They're going to find out eventually," the other mutant noted. "It helps to talk about these things. If not with us, then with someone." Ellie nodded, then walked back up to the cabin.

"So then Ellie comes bursting out of the building looking like a bat out of hell," Wade was saying.

"Enough stories, Wade." Ellie said. "You have to go. As much as I love you, I'm pretty tired and there are no beds left here between the eight of us."

She silently begged Wade to just accept it and move on. Wade took two long strides and embraced her. "Keep in touch, Ellie-Bellie. I don't want to lose you,"

"You won't lose me, Wade," Ellie said, smiling tenderly. "What do we always say to each other?"

"That they can't beat us down," Wade said, practically curling around her. Wade was the most tactile person that she knew. "No matter what they throw at us."

"Exactly Wade. Don't let the bastards get you down, huh?" she said.

"I thought I was supposed to be comforting you. How is it every time that I do that, you turn it around?"

Ellie was suddenly very aware that the others were watching. "Because I'm not the one who needs taking care of, Wade."

When the door closed and the car drove off, Ellie turned to her friends. "Well, I wasn't expecting that when I invited you in off the grid," she said with a smile.

"Those two…" Bucky started to say.

"Uhm, just some friends," Ellie said awkwardly. Jean-Paul was was fairly new to her circle, but Wade had known her pretty much since she had gotten out of HYDRA. "I offer this place as a halfway house to certain individuals. Wade has a tendency to abuse my hospitality." She yawned.

"We should all get to bed," Bucky said. Ellie wanted to argue but couldn't bring herself to object when the others agreed. Maybe she could sleep off the M.S.I. faster than burning it off.

Screams awoke everyone in the middle of the night, but it wasn't Ellie's screams, like they had been worried about.

"Bucky!" shouted Steve. "Bucky, wake up."

Bucky awoke with a start and it took a minute before he recognized where he was. "Stevie?" he asked loudly. "Stevie? You're still alive. Where's Ellie?"

Ellie bolted out of the bed that she and Sam were sleeping in and headed to the bedroom, Sam on her heels. "She's here, Buck. She's safe." Steve was saying.

"She killed you. She killed everyone," Bucky sobbed. Ellie stood in the doorway, rigid. Quite suddenly she was running and Sam wasn't all that far behind her. She was sobbing, panicked and betrayed. Her own father saw her for what she was. She killed everyone. She'd kill everyone again. It was in her nature. It must be true, her own father believed it. Sam tackled her to the ground as she hysterically sobbed.

Ellie forced Sam off and pulled the knife that she slept with on Sam. Sam's eyes went wide and he immediately put his hands out in front of him. "Stay away from me," she all but shouted. "I'm dangerous."

"No more dangerous than any of us," Sam said. "In this day and age, anyone with an Internet connection is dangerous."

Ellie shook as her eyes went wide. "I'm a weapon, Sam. Designed so that I would kill my own people. Track them down wherever they were hiding and slaughter them. I've killed so many people, Sam. You can't possibly love me."

Sam moved so fast that she blinked and he had her in his arms. "Hey. I couldn't possibly _not_ love you. You're amazing. Whatever happened in HYDRA, no one could possibly blame you for. It's all in your past. But we're here now."

She stiffened and pulled away. "This isn't my past, Sam. This is…" she started walking away again and Sam grabbed her shoulder. Tears started to trickle down her face. Ellie whirled around. "I'm too dark for you, Sam, This is my present, Sam. And my future. I could …"

"Kill everyone? Ellie, you would never do that," Sam reassured her.

"But I did Sam, I killed _everyone_. _I_ ended Project ASSP. Because they're all _dead_ , Sam." Ellie's face crumpled as she crumpled into the foot and a half of snow on the ground. The cold bit at her knees, which only made her sob harder. "I killed them all. My father's right, Sam. I'm a _monster_."

Sam's eyes widened and he took a step back. "What?"

"I _murdered_ nine people, Sam," Ellie whispered, looking away. She had never told anyone that. Natasha, Wade, and Remy knew, but they had been there. She swore them to secrecy and they had agreed to keep their silence. Which was impressive, considering Wade's mouth. Of course, Wade, Remy, Victor, and Logan would always understand this side to her more than the others. But all of that didn't mean that she didn't feel shame for what she had done, and she was happy to have them to distract her.

Sam remained frozen, staring at her. She froze at his reaction. "I understand," she said, starting to get up and feeling like she wanted to die. "You guys stay as long as you like," she said, forcing a smile. Maybe Victor could pick her up. She wouldn't mind staying with the Brotherhood for a couple of days to recover. She had found her father and he'd be safe with the Avengers. That was what mattered. It had been nice to feel like she belonged somewhere, even though it wasn't real.

Sam suddenly came out of his stupor, shaking his head, "no, god no," he whispered. He stepped forward and wrapped her in another hug and they fell back earth-wards. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," Sam said, running a hand through her hair and holding on to her as if she was going to disappear right in front of her. "You can't scare me off, even with that."

"No reason will ever be good enough to justify what I did," Ellie said quietly. "You should leave before I hurt you."

"You know, you should come down to the VA some time. There are a lot of guys there that have said those exact words to me during a session."

"What am I gonna say? I was a teenage HYDRA superspy?" Ellie said, her tone just a little lighter. Sam shifted her around so that he could hug her and lean her back into his chest.

"We got a group for black ops guys… no one really asks any questions about the how and the why. We meet at this old boxing gym at M and Delaware in DC because it usually devolves into guys pounding the shit out of each other." Ellie considered it. "You don't have to. You don't have to talk about it…"

Ellie sat, staring out at the snow. "You ever wonder how HYDRA came up with the plan to destroy SHIELD when they did?"

"I assumed it was Alexander Pierce's plan," Sam said.

Ellie smiled. "It was their backup plan," she said quietly as more tears spilled out. "Project ASSP was the first plan." Sam held her a little tighter, but didn't interrupt. "There were ten of us. Each was assigned to a different city world wide, We were to be dispatched if there was any resistance. The original plan was to kill a third of the World's population in the first wave. Two billion people, wiped out in just a few seconds. Innocent lives. When I escaped from HYDRA, I found out their plan. I knew the best way to stop the plan would be to cut off their legs. And despite how much I loved them, I couldn't …" Sam rocked her and Ellie cursed herself for feeling vulnerable, blaming the M.S.I.

"I… can't imagine how hard it must have been to make that decision," Sam said stroking her temples. "You really are the bravest person I've ever met."

She felt exhausted suddenly. The fight leaving her. "I'm not brave," she said. "I run."

"So I'll run with you," Sam said. "I told you, I'm in this."

"Why?" she said. "I mean, you could be an Avenger… why follow me?" She left off the _I'm not worth it_ , mostly because she knew how he'd react.

Sam was silent for a long time. "I want to," he said quietly. "You deserve to be taken care of, and I want to be that person. No matter how long it takes to convince you."

"Mind if I join you guys?" came a voice, breaking the magic of the moment. They both turned their head towards the speaker. Natasha was standing there with an arm full of blankets from the store room. She sat down before waiting for their response and handed Sam the largest of the blankets, which Sam used to wrap both him and Ellie in. "Bucky and Steve are going nuts in there. Bucky's beating himself up over what he said. He thinks you're leaving. Steve's having trouble talking him down." She gave Ellie a look that made it clear that running wasn't an option.

Ellie made a dissatisfied noise and looked out at the hills and farm land. She had twenty acres here. All for the sake of privacy. It was quiet here, and most importantly was the beauty of watching the snow fall. For it was falling, thick and heavy like the blanket that surrounded her and Sam. She let her eyes droop, watching the snow fall. It felt odd, trusting Sam, even while she was doing so. It usually took her longer to trust people, but he had never given her any reason not to. He was sticking with her despite hearing worst of her. Ellie nestled further into Sam and closed her eyes. Five minutes wouldn't hurt.

She was vaguely aware of her body being carried somewhere but she was so tired that she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes. She could hear things though.

" _God Steve, look at her. This is all my fault."_

" _Bucky… Bucky! Look Bucky, you couldn't have known. Nobody knew."_

" _She must hate me."_

" _She doesn't hate you. I've known her for nearly fifteen years and all I can say is that there are parts of her past that she doesn't open up to anyone about. Frankly I'm shocked that Sam here got her to talk about it."_

The house was dark and quiet when she awoke again. She snuck outside and frowned. Two feet of snow had fallen overnight in addition to the foot and a half that was already on the ground. She prayed to the universe that the others had remembered to keep the SAT phone charged and the stores supplied (though the latter part Ororo and Jean usually did, so they were probably good on food).

"You okay?" Bucky's voice made her jump a mile.

She turned and smiled. "I'm better, thanks for asking."

"I don't remember the last time I saw a Nor'easterly snow," Bucky said distantly.

"There's a reason why I own this place," Ellie said. "I love the solitude. It's quiet, off the grid, away from… everyone and everything. There's not an ounce of technology that works up here, except for a single SAT phone that I keep in the basement for emergencies."

"I did find the lack of electricity in here a little weird," he said.

Ellie laughed. "Natasha regularly refers to this house as the Dark Ages house," Ellie said. "I do have a working fridge, but that's pretty much it." She hoisted herself onto the porch railing and grinned at her father.

"There were a couple months during the Depression that we couldn't pay for electricity. This isn't too bad," Bucky said.

"At least it's not HYDRA," Ellie said, staring up at the stars. She pointed up towards them, "That's another reason why I love this place. When I was at HYDRA, I was never allowed to see the stars, just to look up at them…"

Bucky sat on the steps and stared up at the stars. "I haven't sat and looked up in the stars since the 40s."

"Same stars," Ellie said, looking down at him. "They haven't changed."

"True… I'm sorry about…. I had a nightmare that HYDRA took you back and they made you kill everyone you ever loved. The look on your face… I don't know which was worse, the look on your face in my dream or the look when I said those awful words to you."

Ellie stared out at the snow for a long while until she finally cracked. She got down from the railing and sat across from him on the stairs. "I spent seventeen years with my family in HYDRA. I grew up with them. They weren't just nameless faces to me. But HYDRA was planning to do horrible things with Project ASSP so I knew I had to somehow end it. I brought Wade and Natasha and another friend of mine, Remy Lebeau, as backup, then went in alone. I wanted to free them, but … they had all been wiped. They were trying to kill me so I had to kill them… one by one. During the battle I got hit with M.S.I. and Wade had to pull me out. Apparently I was standing in the middle of a circle of bodies, blind from the pain of the data. They got me out of there and we ended up stuck in a subway station for thirty-six hours because they couldn't call for help and HYDRA was looking for us on the streets."

"I remember every single person I killed for HYDRA," Bucky said distantly. "It was like my body wasn't my own. Like I was shoved aside and some assassin took my place. Sometime it still feels like pieces of him are still in there, forcing me to atone for his sins."

"It gets easier," Ellie said. "I've been out for twenty years, and it still feels that way sometimes, but it gets easier. I still get nightmares from time to time, even after all this time."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Bucky asked. "Why are you awake so early anyway? God, I didn't give you a nightmare, did I?"

Ellie shook her head. "HYDRA woke me up at 0400 every morning since I was three-years-old for training. I've never been able to sleep later than that, and I needed some time to myself before… everyone will want to talk about it and frankly, I'm not used to it."

Bucky stiffened. "Do you need me to go?" he asked.

"No, God, no. I actually love that you were up. I like being able to get to know you without anyone else around," Ellie said.

"Well, I'm guessing tomorrow will be a zonk, so we'll have plenty of time for that," Bucky said. "Radio said more snow was headed our way.

"Zonk?" Ellie asked.

"It's an army term," Bucky said. "For when PT was cancelled due to the weather. I don't think we'll get much done."

"You'd be surprised. These _are_ Avengers that we're living with," Ellie retorted.


	12. The Yenta and Yuletide

The past eight months had been a challenge for Bucky. After he and Steve had fallen off of the Helicarrier, he had spent a month wandering around D.C. He had found his way to the Smithsonian, where he was shocked to find out that his name seemed to be Bucky Barnes and he was Steve Rogers' best friend when he was growing up. He had remembered a little, then spent a few months wandering around Brooklyn. He got a haircut after he started remembering snippets of the war. After that, and with a list of bases that he, Steve, and the Howling Commandos had taken down that he had memorized, he took off for Europe. With each passing day, he started more and more to feel like himself. He remembered little of his time as the Soldier, but frankly didn't want to. He wanted to be the man who went with Steve to the end of the line.

Naturally, finding out that HYDRA had created a daughter from his sperm had been more than a little bit of a shock. It helped that the first day she was unconscious. It gave him time to adjust to the idea. She had grown up without him. In fact, she was older than he was. He had wanted to hate Sam by default, but found that he couldn't - especially not because of how much they clearly were in love. He saw it in the way that she looked at him. The ways that he tried to make her laugh, especially when she had what Clint and Natasha referred to as a 'tech attack'. The three of them actually spent a good amount of time together at the cabin in the following week. The storm had all but snowed them in, but Ellie had plenty of supplies and more came with a couple of Ellie's mysterious friends, though they didn't stop to chat like Wade did.

By the time they returned to New York, Ellie was all but back to normal, according to Clint and Natasha. Bucky was getting back to feeling like normal to. Ellie had immediately set to work, expertly removing Bucky's trigger words. Ellie had a list of about two dozen phrases and they had only removed three, but they were on their way. Steve and Bucky both pressed Ellie to find out how she knew how to do this, but Ellie remained tight-lipped on the matter. In spite of himself, Bucky found himself worrying about his daughter.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ellie said, coming up to him. Bucky started. He had been staring off towards Brooklyn as he thought, and had been so out of it he hadn't heard her approach.

"Just happy to be here," Bucky said with a soft smile.

"Liar," Ellie said, but grinned.

"I was thinking about you," Bucky admitted after a second.

"Bet you weren't expecting me," Ellie said quietly. "Surprise, you're a dad!"

"Best surprise I've had in my life," Bucky said.

"You're not ashamed that I'm a freak?" she asked meekly.

Bucky growled, wanting to kill everyone who convinced his daughter that she wasn't perfect the way she was.

Ellie smiled, but Bucky could see the barest amount of sadness in her eyes. They spent a lot of nights up on the porch in Connecticut or the balcony over the last couple weeks, talking about HYDRA while the others slept (or were holed up in their lab, as was the case for Stark). Bucky took off his hoodie and put it around her shoulders. Ellie looked up at him, "I'm not cold," she said, her eyes wide and eyebrows drawn together.

"I know," Bucky said. Neither of them got cold. It had been trained out of them for that sort of thing to register. "I'm going out today. I'll be gone for a little while."

Ellie nodded, "Do you need someone to go with you?"

"No," Bucky said. "This is something that I need to do on my own."

Ellie stared at him for a second before nodding. "Okay then," she said slowly. They stood there awkwardly until Ellie went back inside. Their relationship was still a little vague. She refused to allow anyone to take care of her and currently was in the process of driving _them_ all crazy by taking care of them all. It was as if Ellie thought she could ease the transition into the 21st century with blankets and food.

Bucky _was_ shocked at how the city changed, and nothing could help that, despite his daughter's best intentions (he was still getting over … ' _daughter'_ ). After they returned from the Barnes' Connecticut residence, a name that Ellie cheerfully adopted, Bucky made an effort to acclimate to the new era. There was a lot more activity in the city than he remembered and his time in HYDRA made him extremely vigilant.

Normally, Steve and Ellie would have gone with him, but today he was out shopping for the perfect Christmas gift for his daughter. He didn't have much money, but Steve apparently got money from Stark for expenses, so Steve passed him his credit card. For a week, Bucky had struggled over what to get his daughter, but hearing stories about how much she'd given up, he landed on the perfect thing to get her. So a cold Thursday afternoon found him heading back from Jersey where he found someone selling what he was looking for.

He was so pleased and distracted by the rush and smell of the city that he didn't notice the girl crossing the street and the cab that headed towards her, clearly not slowing down, until it was almost too late.

In the blink of an eye, Bucky bolted out into the street and yanked the young woman almost clear of the cab's path. The corner of the cab still hit her and with that momentum, Bucky lost his grip for a second and she went skittering the rest of the way across the road. He made note of the license plate before rushing over to the stunned young woman.

"Are you alright?" he asked, traces of Brooklyn in his voice at the stress of the situation.

"I'm fine," she said, checking herself over. A crowd started to gather. Several of them on the phone.

"You should wait here for the cops," Bucky urged as the young woman started to get up.

Her eyes went wide. "No. No cops," she said, panicked. "It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine." She blinked and her eyes registered how tall and attractive the man was.

"Well, at least let me take you to a hospital," the man said, his voice gaining an insistent tone. Her heart fluttered. Damn he was fine.

"Really, I'm fine," Skye insisted. "I was just going to see my family. They can look after me."

"Can I escort you then?" Bucky asked. She was very pretty, even with the dirt and asphalt that littered her body. Such a pretty dame shouldn't be alone in New York. He didn't dare say it - from what Ellie and Natasha said, attitudes towards women changed drastically since the 1930s.

The young woman blushed, "Well, how am I supposed to say no to that when you're so reasonable… and uh, firm," she said, batting her eyelashes.

"Where are you headed?" Bucky asked.

"Near 45th and Park," she said. "Not far."

Bucky tensed a little. He knew the Avengers Tower was at 45th and Park. Was she one of the groupies that Steve and Natalia warned him about? "You're meeting your friends?"

"I'm going to see my family," she said with a smile, gathering up her bags. Bucky did the same. "It's Christmas, in case you haven't heard." Bucky relaxed a little further. If she was going to see family, it seemed she was headed for a residence. He laughed and the young woman blushed and looked down as she walked, a limp still present in her gait. "You know, you really don't have to do this," she said.

He nodded, "I'm headed that way anyways, it's no trouble at all." He offered her his arm. "Shall we?" he asked. Skye took it tentatively.

They walked a block in silence. "I'm Skye, by the way," she said.

"I'm Bucky," Bucky said.

"So where are you headed, Bucky?" Skye asked.

"Not far from 45th and Park," Bucky said, not wanting to mention the Avengers tower in case she was a groupie.

"You a New Yorker?" Skye asked.

"I'm from Brooklyn," Bucky said, pausing before he remembered to ask her the same question. He had gotten used to only answering people's questions. "How about you?"

"I grew up around Hell's Kitchen," Skye said, "but I moved away a while ago. I came back for a visit and wanted to have lunch with a friend."

"That was a violent area when I was growing up," Bucky remarked, frowning.

Skye laughed shortly. "It's a violent area now, or haven't you heard about the Devil being from Hell's Kitchen? I was just over there visiting my friend Matt, and some of the stories he and his friends can tell about what's been happening over there… I mean, I shouldn't be grateful for the guy, he's a violent criminal, but he's really done a lot for my home. I have a friend of a friend who was saved from these two rapists by that guy."

Bucky frowned at this for multiple reasons. First, he was unhappy that standards of chivalry had so fallen that this 'Matt' would not think to escort Skye out of a dangerous area like Hell's Kitchen. Second, he didn't like that this young woman had such a cavalier attitude about rape. Finally, he recalled the others talking about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and whether he had been useful to decrease Crime in New York. It had been a rather heated discussion. Clint pointed out that who ever he or she was, they could only do so much good if they chose to stick within one small neighborhood in Manhattan. Steve agreed, noting that the only significant good he had done was to save the world from larger dangers.

Ellie, ever the defender of superheroes, mutants, and vigilantes alike, pointed out that not all crimes were committed on a global scale. She became passionate, defending the Devil's actions. She pointed out that all of them at some point had been thought of as vigilantes. "Bucky?" Skye asked.

"Huh?"

"I asked what do you think? About the Devil," Skye asked. She seemed genuinely curious.

"A friend of mine thinks that the only real good that can be done is on a global scale," Bucky said, trying to mimic Steve's words as closely as possibly.

"Well, that's what he thinks. I wanted to know what you thought," Skye pressed.

Bucky considered it for a moment. "I think the global things are important, but for most people, it's the little day-to-day changes that make all the difference." Skye smiled and something leapt deep inside of Bucky. He really wanted to make her do that again.

"I think the little things are important too," Skye said.

Arriving at 45th and Park, Skye extracted her arm. "Thank you for the escort," she said kindly. Bucky wanted to object but decided that Skye might not want a near-stranger knowing where she was staying.

To Bucky's surprise, Skye started towards the lobby doors. Bucky followed her. They exchanged suspicious looks when they entered the private elevator, and more suspicious when JARVIS started the elevator sky-ward. Both kept glancing at each other, too polite and anxious to accuse or ask.

"Oh my god, it's Terrabyte and Robocop!" Stark declared gleefully. "Guys, Robocop found Terrabyte!"

Natasha rushed over and moved to tackle Skye, but she froze when Skye tensed and hissed at the contact. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Skye said. "Just a little a little sore."

"Training hard then?" Natasha asked, getting off Skye and helping her up.

"Uh, yeah, but some guy clipped me on the way over."

"The taxis in this town are insane," Tony ranted. "Did you get the plate?"

"I was a little busy, Tony!" Skye snapped. According to Ellie, Skye and Tony had been texting and emailing quite a lot over the past few months.

"I remember it," Bucky practically growled.

"Good. We can file charges."

"We're _not_ filing charges," Skye objected. "I'm not even supposed to be here. If I file charges, it could draw the wrong kind of attention to me. If I had really been in danger, I could have just used my powers to prevent the accident from being hit in the first place. I just got clipped. This is New York. It happens."

Ellie stepped up and embraced Skye. "Doctor Cho's still gonna check you out," she insisted.

"Fine," Skye moaned. "You're so annoying."

"Big sisters generally are," Clint said. "Big brothers are too."

"You're the worst," Skye said with a smile as they started down the hall to Doctor Cho's office. Bucky didn't even notice he was going along with them. The young woman in front of him was brash, loud, and decisive, but there was a touch of something in her that reminded him of the 1940s.

"How's training going?" Ellie asked. Skye started to describe her training vaguely enough that it was hard to follow everything she talked about, though oddly Ellie seemed to understand.

Bucky froze in place, suddenly putting the pieces together. He hadn't realized that this Skye was the same person that Ellie, Clint, and Natalia talked about. They had mentioned her name was Skye, but Bucky hadn't been sure how common of a name it was.

Skye was fine, apart from a few bumps and bruises. Ellie couldn't help the but notice the looks that Bucky and Skye were exchanging while Doctor Cho checked her out. Natasha caught Ellie's eye and they exchanged a couple looks. There was clear attraction. Ellie wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it, but she tried her best to look on the bright side. They could probably help each other and Ellie honestly couldn't see herself standing in the way of love. Especially since it _was_ her father. Bucky had been burned by HYDRA, while Skye had been burned by… pretty much everyone.

As it was the day before Christmas Eve, the Orphan family prepared for their favorite Christmas tradition. After dinner with the Avengers, everyone parted ways, except for Ellie, Sam, Steve, and Bucky.

"Are we ready?" Skye asked, entering the room.

"I've got the popcorn," Clint said, bringing over a truly massive bowl.

"I've got the sugar," Natasha said as she opened a tub of red vines, a bag of marshmallows, a box of twinkies and the largest box of Hershey bars Ellie had ever seen. Ellie knew the case of soda and lemonade was in the TV room

"I built the fort in the TV room," Ellie said.

"What's going on?" Bucky asked.

Skye said. "We're watching Lilo and Stitch."

"It's Skye's favorite," Ellie said. "You should join us."

"What's it about?" Bucky asked.

"Family," Clint said with a grin. "We watch it every Christmas, the first night we're all together. Superspy orphan family tradition."

"It's a children's film," Natasha said with a roll of her eyes. Ellie grinned. Natasha would never admit that she enjoyed such a film, but that didn't stop her from becoming emotionally invested in Experiment 626 or drawing parallels from Stitch's life to her own mid-movie every time. Ellie didn't blame her. Stitch's last lines of the movie always resonated with Ellie.

"It's an animated Disney film," Ellie explained. "It's good."

Steve and Bucky exchanged a glance. "Sure, why not?" Steve said, shrugging his shoulders.

Bucky quickly situated himself in an open spot between Skye and Ellie while Steve positioned himself on the other side of Skye and Sam sat next to Ellie. Clint and Natasha curled around each other on the couch.

Before they could press play, few bars of a song Bucky didn't know came from a cell phone. Ellie rushed to pull it out of her pocket and pushed off, blushing. Everyone, save Steve and Sam, stared at her.

"Sam, you butt-dialed me again," she said quietly.

"My ringtone is 'It's Raining Men?'" Sam asked curiously.

"… yeah," Elllie said, blushing further.

"What's mine?" Clint asked curiously.

"The University of Iowa fight song," Ellie said with a smile. Clint groaned and everyone else laughed. Ellie saw Steve and Bucky writing in their notebooks.

"Let's start the movie!" Skye declared impatiently.

After finishing _Lilo and Stitch_ , they watched _White Christmas_. Skye ended up asleep and curled against Bucky, who looked rather nervous at her proximity. Ellie rested her own head in the crook of Sam's shoulder. Clint and Natasha even shifted so that they were practically on top of each other. Steve was on the other side of Skye, stiff as a board on his back, snoring lightly.

Ellie silently requested that JARVIS use the security camera to take a couple photos of the family. She thought extensively on Skye and Bucky and decided that if she didn't hear any sordid details, she could survive them being in a relationship. Besides, she had never seen Skye warm up to anyone so fast, and every few minutes her father would forget to look terrified and looked oddly protective. They lay down on top of camper mattresses on the floor that they set down before the movie started and all fell asleep, one by one.

Skye's whimpers woke them all. Bucky woke first and instinct from years of taking care of Steve told him what to do. He didn't wrap his arms around her as to not scare her, but ran his fingers through her hair and started whispering her name and things like, "wake up," "it's okay," and "you're safe."

Ellie awoke second with a start, her movement awakening Sam. She had been having a nightmare about HYDRA herself and it took her a moment to orient herself. She sat up and Sam followed suit, wordlessly wrapping his arms around her.

"Ward!" Skye suddenly cried, sitting up. Bucky caught her as the others looked on, now all awake. Skye's eyes shot open.

It took Skye a moment before she recognized the others in the room. Then she blushed. "Sorry," she said.

"We all have nightmares," Ellie said. "Nothing to be ashamed of."

"He can't hurt you anymore," Clint added.

Bucky gained a possessive look as he continued to run a hand through her hair, looking like he wanted to say something, but he held back. Skye suddenly realized that he was stroking her hair and jerked away. Bucky flinched and retracted his hand. "Sorry," he said. "Sorry, I shouldn't have."

Skye stared at him. "You were trying to comfort me?" Skye said, her eyes full of doubt. Clint and Natasha silently extracted themselves from the couch and left the room. Ellie and Sam stayed where they were. Sam shifting subtly so that he pressed as closely against Ellie as possible. Ellie knew she was tense.

Steve checked his watch. "I should go for my run," he said casually. "It's not that early really." Ellie checked the time and saw it was 5am.

"You okay, Skye?" Ellie asked quietly. Thunder rolled and lightning cracked outside. Ellie wondered if they'd have thundersnow for Christmas.

Skye took a couple deep breaths, hugging her knees and getting her control back before replying. "Yeah, I just had a dream about Ward coming back from the dead…" she said.

"Ward?" Bucky asked. Ellie knew Sam knew the story, but Bucky hadn't been told much about recent happenings with their sister.

"He was HYDRA," Ellie said. "He's dead now."

"They won't touch you," Bucky said instinctively. He froze. "Sorry," he said blushing. "I don't know why I keep doing that."

Skye blushed, "It's okay. But honestly I have a better grasp of taking care of myself than I did then."

"She can manipulate the vibration of atoms," Ellie said proudly. "Mostly she can make earthquakes right now."

"Are you like Ellie?" Bucky asked curiously.

"Sort of -" Skye started.

"She is a Kree weapon," came a big, booming voice. They all looked up and saw Thor standing there, aiming his hammer maliciously at the group. "Weapons that were meant to have been destroyed."

Ellie shot to her feet. Gordon once explained the history of Inhumans. About what the Kree had done to them. Bucky immediately shifted so that he stood between Skye and the unidentified intruder. "She's not a _weapon_ ," Ellie hissed. She spotted Clint, Natasha, and the other Avengers, along with a couple new women JARVIS identified for her as Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, were standing behind Thor, all shouting at him to stop.

"The Kree weapons must be destroyed," Thor all but roared. "As we have done in the past."

"You're talking about murdering a human being," Ellie said, taking a fighting stance. Sam seemed to have a hard time deciding between fighting alongside Ellie and getting Skye out of the line of fire. "Sam, go. Bucky and I will be fine." Sam grabbed Skye and pushed her behind a couch since the only exit was now blocked and the couch provided the greatest amount of protection. Ellie wondered in passing if Tony could rig Sam's EX-0s to be called remotely.

"It is out of pity that we do such things," Thor said imposingly. "Heimdall informs me that this one has the power to manipulate atoms. She could destroy this entire realm!" Ellie could hear Sam talking to Skye in a calm, quiet voice.

"You really think so highly of yourself," Ellie growled taking a step closer to the demigod. "You fight the Kree millennia ago and a few powered humans get left behind when you up and leave without so much as a word. You really think that you show up and by coincidence they show up again? They've been on Earth this _entire_ time. They have a _lot_ of practice in controlling their powers."

"But-" Thor started.

"They call themselves Inhumans and they have nothing to be ashamed of. They're not _weapons_ anymore just because of what they can do," Ellie shot back. "Skye has control of her powers. If she didn't, they wouldn't let her be here. And for that matter, humans have evolved on their own, without the Kree or Asgardians. There are plenty of us who have powers and are 100% human. You have no right to show up here and presume that you know _anything_ about what's happening in the world."

Thor glowered at her dangerously. "You have powers such as these?"

"I can manipulate radio waves," Ellie said. "Technology."

"Then you are just as dangerous as the Kree weapon," Thor growled.

"We're all dangerous!"Ellie exclaimed. "Are you going to really wipe out thousands of people with powers because of intel you had thousands of years ago? You should decide, because if you really want that, you're gonna have to start with me, You won't touch Skye while I have anything to say about it."

Bucky shoved Ellie behind him and Ellie rolled her eyes. "Don't you touch either of them," Bucky growled.

Ellie ducked under her father's arms and stepped up to Thor, who now stared at her with something nearing consideration in his eyes. "Yes, originally the Kree used a portion of the population to create weapons. They were a danger to themselves and those around them. But when you all left, they had no choice but learn how to control it by themselves. Now they have a community. Families teaching offspring how to control their powers. They _have_ control. Neither of us would be here if we didn't have control. The Kree weapons that you so swiftly decide need to be killed. They aren't weapons. They never were. They're powered individuals who call themselves Inhuman, and if you put down that hammer, I can introduce you to one.

The Avengers behind Thor quieted during Ellie's showdown with the God of Thunder and Thor himself stared at Ellie for a long while before finally setting down the hammer.

"I apologize for my haste, Lady…" Thor started.

"Ellie," Ellie supplied.

"Lady Ellie? Shield sister to Lady Natasha and Eyes of Hawk?" Ellie clenched her jaw and nearly burst a vein trying not to laugh at 'eyes of hawk', but managed to succeed. Barely.

"That's me," Ellie said with a rather large grin. "I imagine most of what they told you is a total lie."

"I doubt it. For I do not believe that such stories could be made up. In particular, the tale of you against the Samurai was quite the interesting tale."

Ellie managed to glare around Thor at Natasha and Clint. "They weren't supposed to tell anyone about Tokyo," she said lightly. "But I cannot deny that it's true."

"I should like to see you fight," Thor said. "After hearing stories such as those."

"I'm up for the challenge," Ellie said, "but as for the task at hand…" She turned back into the room. "Sam?" She called.

"Yeah?" Sam asked from behind the couch.

"Skye, you okay?" Ellie called.

"I-I'm okay," Skye said shakily.

"You want me to get rid of Thor?" Ellie asked.

Skye came out from behind the couch. "I'm okay," she said, still looking warily at Thor.

"Skye, this is Thor. Thor, this is Skye.

Skye extended her hand and Thor took it. Skye's eyes went wide at how small her hand was in comparison to his. Bucky tensed beside Ellie. "Nothin' like your first Asgardian, huh Skye?" Clint asked jokingly.

"Uh, he's not," Skye said, not taking her wary eyes off of Thor.

All the Avengers stared at Skye. "I was not aware that you had the opportunity to meet other Asgardians," Thor said frowning.

"Well, Lady Sif needed our help finding Lorelai when she escaped, and there was the Professor who stayed behind after fighting with the Vikings and his Berserker staff caused all kinds of havoc in Europe after that whole… Greenwich thing."

"Ah, you have met Lady Sif?" Thor said, surprised. "She did not mention travels to Midgard."

"Well, I didn't get to meet her exactly or else I would have totally gotten a selfie with her. It was more like… she was on the same plane as I was? I was stuck in the infirmary at the time. But I met the Professor who was secretly an Asgardian…"

Eventually Skye and Thor migrated to sitting on the couch. Thor seemed to warm up to her once she explained a little bit about her background. Thor seemed deeply troubled by the concept of the foster care system, which launched Natasha into the story of how they found Skye, seeking sympathy points for her sister. It ended up just making Thor angry and upsetting Bucky and Steve.

Ellie thanked her lucky stars that no one actually knew the story of how the X-Men found her. She was pretty sure no one would survive a story like that. Thor and Skye seemed to be forming one of those bonds where they had little in common but somehow meshed together in just the right way. Maybe because both of them had element-based powers, but they seemed to be talking technicalities of their powers that no one else was able to follow.

Eventually, they all migrated to the kitchen, where they all sat down to breakfast. After he finished eating, Bucky, who sat down next to Skye, started running a hand through Skye's hair. Catching himself, he turned to Skye and blushed, retracting his hand. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I keep doing that. I'll try to -" Skye interrupted Bucky by kissing him hard and wrapping her arms around his neck. Bucky froze for a full two seconds before wrapping his own arms around her waist and lifting her bodily.

Ellie ducked outside to the balcony, letting the Avengers teach Thor about the 'magic' of Christmas (even though he repeatedly referred to it as 'Midwinter's Feast') by decorating the common floor of the tower and the communal Avenger tree. Darcy Lewis, who introduced herself as Head Scientist Wrangler and Avenger PR Director, took plenty of photos and video for social media, keeping Bucky carefully out of frame. She stared out at the city, unhindered by the cold, watching the city awaken below as the Avengers and her family decorated the tree inside.

"You need a drink?" Stark asked.

Ellie turned around and saw him holding a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. "God yes," she exclaimed, despite it being 9am. The alcohol didn't really touch her anyway.

The man poured two glasses, set down the bottle, and passed her one before joining her. "Can't fault you for needing a break. Not counting this morning's drama, it's been eventful lately. Plus, I've never been one to celebrate Christmas and it's like Charlie Brown threw up in there."

Ellie sipped the whiskey. "I confess I'm not a big fan of this type of Christmas. It was always an annual holiday celebrating everything that I had been forced to give up."

"Yeah, my dad always worked on Christmas and my mom always either got drunk by noon or went off at some spa retreat," Tony said.

Ellie turned to Tony and smiled. "Okay, worst Christmas, go."

Tony looked at her, "What?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed for once as he tried to work out Ellie's logic leap.

"You heard me genius-boy. Let's figure out who has worst Christmas memories," Ellie challenged.

"Okay, River. You're on." Tony said. "You wanna go first?"

"Let's see… well, growing up we always got really practical gifts. Stuff for fighting or training," Ellie said, taking another sip. "We never got anything that was fun or Christmas-y. I never even had a tree growing up."

"I remember, one year, I wanted a horse so I could ride when I was out at the Hampton's house. Instead I got an engine, so I could figure out how to build one of my own. Dad said that Stark men had to earn their money, we couldn't just sit on our laurels and rely on our trust funds."

"Ouch!" Ellie said with a smile. "Let's see… Ooo! One year our supervisor got us the dossiers on our parents and I found out that my father was the Winter Soldier. I was four, so I went up to him later and asked to see him. I got two hours of extra training to beat the questions out of me."

"Nice!" Tony said, impressed. He took another swig. "The Christmas after my parents died, I was alone in the house. I didn't even bother with decorations. They died a few weeks before Christmas and Obie stopped by the day before to let me know that he needed me in the office after New Year's. Said that I had an obligation to the shareholders. To my father's legacy. Bastard."

Ellie poured herself another glass. "My first Christmas out of HYDRA control, a bunch of the students up at Xavier's school put together this kit on how to survive out in the world. I couldn't open it. I broke down sobbing because I missed them. I missed being in HYDRA, and I hated myself for missing them because they almost killed me."

"This is why I love you, River." Tony said. "You're nearly as messed up as I am. Usually when I get into this kind of mood around Christmas, Pepper yells at me."

"I appreciate your mood," Ellie said, staring at her whiskey glass. "When the families of the kids at the school visit this time of year, everyone gets this attitude like … none of the kids are mutants, and it's actually this super fancy boarding school for gifted kids. The Christmas card attitude just falls on the school."

Tony snorted. "Sounds horrible."

"Yeah, Boxing Day, a bunch of us who have seen too much would end up in the back room of some bar, playing cards and drinking for two days straight," Ellie said, gaining an affectionate grin. "At some point someone would kill Wade and Remy, my ex, and I would decide to give each other another shot. We were on-again, off-again for a really long time."

"Now _that_ sounds like Christmas."

"Yeah, I'm kinda sorry that I'm not going this year," Ellie said sipping her drink.

Tony downed another drink. "Look, don't take this the wrong way, but are you okay?"

Ellie stared at Tony. "You really want to ask that question?"

"One more of these and I would love to hear the answer," Tony said with a sarcastic grin. Ellie wasn't sure how someone could grin sarcastically, but Tony somehow managed to pull it off.

Ellie sighed. "Everyone else here, save for me and Skye, grew up knowing where they stood with their parents. You all knew that your parents loved you at some point. Even Skye's parents loved her, even if she doesn't remember it or doesn't realize it yet."

Tony scoffed. "Not everyone's," he pointed out.

Ellie stared at him, remembering everything she knew about the Starks. "Your father loved you." she said softly. "You have no idea how much he loved you."

"Yeah, he had a funny way of showing it," Tony snapped.

"Sure, the way he showed you that he loved you totally sucked." Ellie said with a shrug, "But he still loved you. Mine didn't even know I existed."

"He loves you now," Tony pointed out, noticing Bucky glancing out at them with a worried look every once in awhile. Ellie waved at her father. They were still working on eliminating any trigger words that would have been embedded in Bucky's mind, but Sam noted that the hypervigilance and the paranoia might never go away.

Ellie shrugged, turning back to watch the people below. "That doesn't take away nearly forty years of me not having a father. Or the fact that I'll never get a mother. _Or_ the fact that, despite the fact that my father was born in the Roaring 20s, I'm older than him." She snorted and checked her watch. "And as much as I appreciate you being… not you, I gotta go," Tony gave her a sharp look and Ellie grinned with mischief in her eyes. "I'll be back." she said, her tone just as happy and playful as it had been sad moments before.

"Do I want to know?" Tony said.

"You could come and see what I get up to on Christmas Eve or you could stay with these guys and the Charlie Brown vomit," Ellie said.

"So," Tony said, setting down the alcohol. "Gun range?" Ellie let out a laugh.

"Just wait and see, Stark," Ellie said, clapping a hand on his back.

"You know? I think I actually have plans," Tony said, realizing that the were headed to a soup kitchen. Ellie grabbed a box from the large bag she brought with her and threw it at Tony, who caught it on instinct. A gingerbread house kit.

"You're the engineer," Ellie said with a smile. "Teach the kids how to build something." Tony looked skeptically at the box. "Tony, come on. These kids go to some of the poorest P.S. elementary schools in the city." Ellie encouraged. "Do you think they have anyone getting them excited about science? Teach them what science can really do."

Not ten minutes later, Ellie spotted Tony surrounded by a group of thirty kids as he sketched out how to deconstruct the gingerbread houses Ellie brought to build a scale model of Avengers Tower. Parents were taking photos as the kids all stared fascinated as Tony explained how physics could be applied to skyscrapers.

"Hey Mark," Ellie said, kissing her friend on the cheek in greeting.

"Ellie, how are you?" Mark said as he pulverized a tub of mashed potatoes.

"Busy, as always. Life quiet here?"

"About as quiet as you could expect. There's still a lot of families who need to be fed on Christmas."

Ellie nodded as she made quick work of the produce that needed to be chopped and then started mixing things together for casseroles and the stuffing for the turkey. "We have enough donations this year? What do we need?"

Mark laughed. "Susanne left a dream list over by the phone," Mark said. "She'll be here in an hour."

"Tell her to come in early. I'll give her my credit card," Ellie said.

Mark shook his head at her, with an awed smile. "You know, you really are a miracle," Mark said. "I know you should be with your family today. Why would you ever want to be here, let alone give your hard-earned money away year after year?"

Ellie paused for a second, then went back to concentrating on prepping the stuffing. Mark was one of her oldest civilian friends. "I know a thing or two about growing up with nothing," she said quietly.

"I know," Mark said.

Ellie straightened and stared at him. "Really?" she asked in shock.

Mark shrugged. "It wasn't that hard to put together. You told me a couple times that your mother was dead and your father was missing. You clearly grew up in some pretty bad foster homes by the way you act. I never said anything because I know it can be a touchy subject. Plus I liked having you around because it inspired the kids. They see someone like them, someone who came from nothing, and someone who made themselves into this great gourmet chef who's apparently cooking for billionaire superheroes these days." Mark paused as Ellie went back to stirring the frying sausage.

"Tony's a friend," Ellie said. "Not a client. I might have cajoled him into coming without telling him what this was," she explained a little sheepishly.

"Regardless, you've got Iron Man over there explaining gravity to a bunch of kids who previously could care less. Do you know how many times I tried to explain to them how it applies to sports? With sports they don't care about it because they've heard it all before, but they never thought that science could actually apply to being a superhero."

"Plus Tony's doing what he loves - talking about his passion to a crowd eating out of the palm of his hands," Ellie said.

Mark laughed. "That too."

Ellie started stuffing the three twenty-pound turkeys. She washed her hands and moved on to glaze the hams. It was the usual very small group of volunteers. They were always full of volunteers at Thanksgiving, but Christmas was a volunteer desert. "I found him, you know?"

"Who?" Mark asked who started on the pies.

"My father." Ellie said, checking the oven temperatures from the internal thermometers before setting the glazing/basting timers and starting on making the dough for the rolls. She pretended to ignore the look Mark gave her.

"Ellie," Mark said, his eyes widening as he looked up to stare at her. Ellie glanced up as she mixed a huge tub of dry ingredients. "You found your father?"

Ellie nodded, glancing over the serving bar at Tony. They were now starting to build the base of the tower. "Yeah," she said refocusing on Mark. "Uh, turns out he was a PoW for a while. Got a bit turned around in everything. We're working on getting him… back into the world."

"Well that's … good. That's good, right?"

Ellie smiled. "It's good, it's just… I'm so used to short-term. Between Dad and the baggage he carries and the new boyfriend and everyone being all tied together… it's solidifying into something long-term. I don't do long term."

"I think you're full of crap," Mark said. "You've been here every Friday you weren't traveling for work for the last _decade_ , Ellie. Kids you fed ten years ago are starting to have kids of their own. You've dedicated your life to helping other people. You deserve family and love."

"People keep saying that," Ellie said, now stirring together the wet ingredients. "I don't understand why."

"Perhaps because they've seen you alone for the last decade with that good-for-nothing who does not treat you -"

"And we're done," Ellie said, ending the conversation. The timer went off at that exact moment and Ellie reset them before starting to baste and glaze the meat.

"Ellie, he strung you along for the better part of a decade." Mark pointed out. "I saw the look on your face when he wanted to take a break to go see other people,"

"Mark," Ellie said slowly. "You do know he asked me to marry him last year, right?"

Mark stared at her, stunned. "Really?" he asked. "And you said no? After all this time?" Ellie nodded. "Why?"

"I didn't know at the time," Ellie said. Remy was more accepting of her past than others for sure, but that didn't mean that he didn't see the mutant side to her more prominently than anything else. Sam would say he loved her because Uncle Steve couldn't steal her away from him. "But now I think I'm realizing that we wouldn't have made each other happy. We would have been miserable."

As the hours wore on, Ellie was a little surprised that Tony didn't get bored and leave. Some of the kids wandered off to other things, others wandered back and forth, but three in particular stayed glued to Tony's side as he explained the basics of mechanical engineering. The two girls and a boy sat fascinated, asking questions of how everything under the sun worked, not just the Iron Man suit. Suzanne, Mark's wife, joined them and they caught each other up on their lives.

Suddenly there a commotion out in the common room. Suzanne and Mark went out to check it out while Ellie basted and glazed and kept herself busy.

"These two belong to you?" Suzanne asked with a smile.

Ellie glanced up and spotted Bucky and Steve standing in the doorway. "Got enough for two more?" Steve asked.

"I don't think I could eat any more," Tony groaned.

"No kidding," Bucky said. "Do you always go there for Christmas Eve?" he asked.

Ellie smiled at her father. "I'm there every Friday that I can be there," she said. "Christmas Eve is one of my favorites. Everyone likes volunteering on Thanksgiving, but it's dead on Christmas. Those kids will certainly have something to brag about at school. Seriously, you didn't have to take a picture with each one of those kids."

Steve shrugged, "Both Buck and I remember growing up without much of anything. Only difference is that no one had anything back then. It must suck to get so little when your friends get a lot."

"Give Darcy a heads up," Ellie said. "The white kids will be screaming by New Year."

Gunshots exploded about fifty yards away and the four of them immediately leapt to action. Tony called his suit, which came hurtling at him seconds later; Ellie pulled up her bulletproof hoodie, pulled out her knives, and twirled them maliciously. Bucky and Steve both exchanged silent gestures that Ellie recognized as military hand signals. Ellie leapt into the conversation as they decided that Steve and Tony would take one group while Ellie and Bucky would take the other.

They parted ways as the gunshots continued, Ellie running beside her father into battle. Sure this wasn't a _big_ battle, but she still dreamed of this day ever since the Christmas she had been given her father's dossier. The gang members were easy to dispense of and tie up. They really had little combat experience so between Ellie and Bucky, their group was disarmed in a matter of minutes. They looked over to the other side of the clearing that the gangs had been shooting into and spotted Tony and Uncle Steve doing the same.

Ellie grinned as she heard sirens. "You guys okay over there?" she called.

"We're all in one piece," Tony answered. "Cap here might have knocked a couple heads in the process."

One of the gang members Ellie tied up started struggling against his bonds and Ellie hit him to knock him out. "If they're this stupid to be out here on Christmas Eve, then they might all need a knock to the head or two."

"FREEZE!" came a new voice. A shaky voice. "NYPD. Let me see your hands!"

Ellie raised her hands and glanced back. "I'm with the Avengers, officer," Ellie said.

"Problem 5-0?" Tony asked, walking over. "Ellie, Cap's over on the other side explaining to the precinct captain what happened. Two Caps in one place. It's like Inception.

Ellie pointed at Tony. "See, I'm with him. We just wanted to stop this before someone got seriously hurt."

The officer's radio squaked. "Send 'em over, Richards. They're okay."

Ellie lowered her hands and turned. He was young, but then everyone seemed young to Ellie. "You're not an Avenger that I recognize," Richards noted.

Ellie smiled. "I wasn't an Avenger before, but I've been around. They call me The Sentinel." She knew it was time to truly step out of the shadows. Being in the public eye scared her, but it had to be done for her to achieve her end goal - expose HYDRA for who they were.

She was careful not to put her hands inside her hoodie, but she smiled. "Come on, Tony, let's go see what Cap wants."

Bucky had already disappeared, but they all easily modified their story. "You let her take on a whole gang by herself?" the Precinct Captain asked suddenly, looking incredulously at her.

Ellie smiled dryly. "I'm tougher than I look," she said. "I ain't no damsel in distress."

The Precinct Captain gave the gang that Ellie and Bucky had taken care of as they were lead into a paddy-wagon. "No kidding," he murmured.

"Merry Christmas, from all of us at ABC!" Albert Grant, the host declared with a huge smile as the camera zoomed in. "At the top of the hour, Avengers were spotted in Central Park last night stopping a gang shooting in the process. Along with Captain America and Iron Man, it appears we may have two new members in the mix. No news on the identity of a man who fought with them, but the woman has now been identified by unnamed sources as 'The Sentinel'. It is believed that this woman is the same woman who has been seen with both Captain America and the Falcon, though recent photos seem to indicate that she's dating the Falcon. Avenger's spokeswoman Darcy Lewis is keeping her lips zipped on both subjects and was not available for comment."

"Because it's Christmas," Darcy shouted angrily at the TV. The TV had been on as they all gathered around the kitchen counter for Christmas morning breakfast of cinnamon rolls that Sam and Ellie made.

"Well that's one way to become an Avenger, ladies," Robert Walker, one of his co-hosts commented with a flirty smile and an over-exaggerated wink at the camera. Everyone froze, staring at the TV in disbelief at what had just been said. Bucky's metal hand tightened, Natasha's eyes narrowed, and Clint looked like he was about to murder someone. This was nothing to how Steve looked like he was about to suit up.

Ellie stopped serving breakfast, staring at the TV, spatula forgotten in her hand. Sam was staring too, his jaw clenching further by the second.

"Several people took photos though," Albert as photos appeared on the screen. "Her costume is a red hoodie and black pants."

Robert made a disapproving noise. "She looks to me like the belongs more with the gangs that they took down than the Avengers."

"She really _could_ make an effort to dress better," Albert noted. "I mean, at least we can tell the Black Widow _is_ a woman." Robert and their other co-host, Alicia Walker, both laughed. The Avengers froze and looked up at the TV. "This is New York, after all. You can't just get away with any old costume, even if you're a superhero."

"Oh, I totally agree," Alicia cut it. "What she's wearing is totally not feminine."

"If you're watching this, whoever you are, wear something a little sexier next time!"

Ellie paled, setting down the spatula near the sink, shaking with anger. "JARVIS," Tony said.

"I-I just need a minute," Ellie said. "God, everyone saw that… all the kids up at the school… my friends..." she said, calmly putting the utensil in the sink. Suddenly she grabbed a dirty fork and flung it as hard as she could. It vibrated as it buried itself in the wall. "Shit!" Ellie shouted in anger.

"We can demand a retraction," Darcy said.

"Or we could sue?" Tony suggested. "I could buy the network and fire them?"

Ellie shook her head, "No. You can't demand a retraction for stating an opinion. If we do that, HYDRA wins. And you can't fire people for stating their opinion either. This is a free country, founded on freedom of the press and freedom of speech. I won't stand by while someone is being censured."

"Actually… you can," Tony started to say, but backed off when Ellie glared at him.

"We're _not_ firing them," Ellie ground out. Sam looked like he wanted to object but instead slid his hand in Ellie's

"I do not understand," Thor said. He turned to Jane who looked upset. "Why were they commenting on how Ellie appeared during battle yesterday?"

"It's just the way the world works," Ellie said tiredly.

"It happened after New York too," Clint noted, his eyes like steel. "Everyone wanted to comment on what Natasha wore. It went on for weeks until Fury shut it down."

"I do not understand," Thor repeated, looking genuinely lost.

"People here tend to judge women based on how they look more than their skills, Thor," Jane said. "To them, they care more about how women dress and look rather than what they do."

Thor snorted. "That does not make sense. A person's skills are far more important than appearance. Beauty is unnecessary for vanquishing foes."

"This was actually pretty mild," Ellie said. "It could have been worse. The _Post_ did this huge thing about me sleeping with Sam and Uncle Steve."

"When did this happen?" Clint asked.

"Two weeks ago, while we were all dealing with the M.S.I. thing," Ellie said. "Seriously guys, I came out of nowhere and went on a world tour with Captain America and the Falcon. Did you really think that they _weren't_ going to debate who I was sleeping with?"

Thor still looked extremely confused by all of this and Jane stood up, sensing what was coming. "Come on Thor, I'll explain it in our room."

They waited until the pair left the room. "Look, I could care less what they say about me. I'm not angry about that," Ellie said.

"You threw a fork into a wall," Tony said.

"Because I know that my friends who have spent years thinking that I'm a private chef saw that. A good portion of my _clients_ saw that. But mostly I'm angry because everyone at the Xavier Institute saw that. Most of the little girls that live there don't think that the world will ever respect them because of their mutant status, but now they also have to worry about everyone judging them based on how they dress and who they date? We have a hard enough time getting these kids to see that they can save the world without assholes like those hosts saying shit like that." No one really had much to say in response to that.

They migrated to the family room where the Christmas tree had been decorated and all the presents were. Sam pulled her in tight as they sat down by the tree. "Hey, I love you," Sam whispered.

Ellie paused, staring at Sam and amazed by the realization that she loved him too. "I do too," she whispered back. Sam pulled Ellie into his lap and for the first time in a long time she like everything would be okay.


	13. Interlude: When the X-Men Found Ellie

She had been in the dark, cold prison for a long time. She wasn't sure how long, because they didn't feed her regularly. She had long ago become resigned to the fate that she would die there, not knowing who she was or how she had come to be there. She didn't understand what the men wanted, only heard a lot of shouting about money and something being too dangerous.

She knew that she was dangerous. At full strength, she was a weapon. While they withheld food, they would come in at regular intervals to beat her. She remembered little of Before. Before the beatings and the hunger and the pain. She didn't remember her name or where she was from. She wondered how she knew that she was a weapon but not the rest of it. She wondered how long it would take until she angered them enough that they would kill her, or worse. However, it instead seemed that she was destined to die slowly of starvation and the strain of her repeated injuries. She knew that infection in her chest was now setting in, as coherent thoughts were coming fewer and farther between. She could barely move. The people who had created her as a weapon had abandoned her. She didn't understand. What were her orders? Why had they left her to die?

It was here, in her hour of true despair, that she did something she had never done before. She asked the universe for something. _'If someone is out there,'_ she thought as hard as she could, internally crying and screaming to fight against her supposed fate. _'Please help. I'm going to die in here if you don't help me.'_

She felt a presence in the back of her mind which caused her to panic. 'Do not be afraid. We're coming for you,' said a voice. She looked around, but there wasn't anyone there. Her fever must be very high if she was hearing voices. Her chest tightened in her panic. She couldn't breathe. She felt like this might be the end, as if she could die here and now. She must have passed out, because she blinked and there were people standing over her. One of them, it occurred to her, was blue. Things that she saw weren't making sense to her. Was she hallucinating? She closed her eyes and tried to breathe, listening to them talk.

"...she's got moderate hypothermia and probably pneumonia, a 41º fever, malnourishment, and dehydration," said a calming voice. She whimpered when she felt hands on her, but was too weak to move.

"That's not even considering her broken bones," said someone else.

"Alright, on three... one... two..." Ellie cried out involuntarily as she felt herself being lifted. Would they really take her to the brink of death just to bring her back? Was it a test? She didn't understand. She wanted out or down or something. She didn't want to be _here_.

"Hold on," the calm voice said. A hand was placed on her chest. She whimpered again. She had lost track of how long she had been held there, but it was long enough that she knew that any touch made was probably a threat.

"Hank, there's not much time. The guards will be coming back soon," said yet another voice above her.

"Hey there," Hank said, ignoring the other person. He was the blue man and that kinda freaked her out, but Ellie didn't have any power to stop him. "I'm Hank. You're safe, I promise. I promise." The man was huge and blue, and she was so weak that she couldn't stop the tears that slipped down her face.

When she next woke up, they were taking x-rays and she was on a gurney. She tried to get up and fight, but was stopped by several pairs of arms. She cried out in fear. Voices were shouting at her and she didn't understand them. Hands held her down and she sobbed as IVs were inserted into her arms. She remembered IVs and bright lights and pain. She didn't want that again. She broke free and managed to tear one out before they grabbed her again.

There was a pinch to her shoulder that pushed the panic to the back of her mind and made her sleepy for a few minutes. By the time her mind had righted itself again, they had put her wrists in soft restraints. An oxygen mask had also been placed over her mouth and nose, and a blanket was placed around her. She wondered who the had rescued her from the Ten Rings. The CIA? SHIELD? Some other secret government organization? These guys didn't seem like any government group. Powereds. If they were powereds they should stay away. Hank smiled when he saw that she was awake, but his eyes were disturbed and sad. "How did you survive?" he murmured. "Where do you come from?"

She was tired, but she still tried to remove the mask, but she was stopped by the restraints. Hank lifted the mask for her. She wheezed heavily for a second and Hank started to replace mask. "Stay'way," she slurred out finally with tears in her eyes. "'mdangerous"

"I think I can handle myself," Hank smiled. The way he smiled, his eyes sparkling over his glasses, it was like he knew something that no one else did.

"'maweapon," she slurred. "Stay'way. Please?" Her lungs burned and crackled. Her ribs protested. She coughed hard. She started to remember. She was the Sentinel. She killed those with powers. She felt her instincts strain against the restraints. She didn't remember being able to speak this much or being this cognizant.

Hank slid a large hand into her own. "Let us take care of you, please? I promise you we can take care of ourselves."

"Hank, her fever's spiking," a voice said in the distance.

Hands were moving quickly over her. She couldn't breathe. "Damnit, her lung collapsed." Hank cursed. She felt cold. Everything felt floaty. She was vaguely aware of a sharp pain in her side, and then there was nothing.

When she woke up again she was on the oxygen mask again and Hank was sitting next to her. "Welcome back to the land of the living," Hank said with a soft smile. "You scared me for a little while." She started getting up, but Hank stopped her. "The mask stays on for now. You're severely underweight, and have been dehydrated for god knows how long. You've got a very bad case of pneumonia, several cracked and broken ribs - one which punctured your left lung, shattered feet, and a whole list of other injuries since you've just spent god knows how long being tortured. Sleep now, we can talk later."

When she woke up again, she felt warmer than she had in a long time and it wasn't quite so hard to breathe. Hank was there, waiting, with a tray of food. "You hungry?" he offered, "you're being fed through the IV, but we need to start re-introducing food to your system."

He took off her mask and smiled. She said nothing, distrustful of herself. She _did_ want food, which was freaking her out, since she wasn't supposed to want things. It wasn't part of her programming.

Hank set the tray down in front of her and offered her the spoon, undoing one of her restraints. She tried to make a grab for it, but her hand dropped halfway to it's destination. Hank very carefully put the spoon in Ellie's hand and Ellie managed to lift it, though it shook like an earthquake was running through it. Hank allowed her to feed herself a few spoonfuls (more landed on the blankets than in her mouth) before it was clear that it was too much effort. He chatted with her about innocuous things while he fed her. In all honesty, she was too exhausted to be embarrassed by it all. By the time half the bowl was finished, she found her eyes drooping, unable to keep her head straight on the pillow. Sleep beckoned.

"I've been meaning to ask," Hank said, covering the small bowl, "Do you have a name? Something we can call you?"

Ellie looked uncomfortable as she blinked several times. "Weapons don't get names," she wheezed. "Not worth saving. Too used up. Designation LE41979M, code name 'Sentinel'." Hank gained a dark look. She yawned. "Who are… you?"

Before she got an answer, she was asleep again. Hank McCoy stayed by her bedside, thinking. They had used her, whoever they were, as a weapon. "How is she?" Charles Xavier asked as he wheeled himself in.

"She's … Charles, I don't even know how she survived all these injuries." Hank said, half in horror and half in awe. "She should be dead and that's nothing to all her previous injuries. Come over here."

He led his friend over to a computer and pointed out the scans that had been done previously. "Look at this. Each of the 206 bones in her body show evidence of being broken in the past and the numerous scars that indicate that she's withstood torture and she's been surgically modified as well. Some of these scars are about fifteen years old. She says she's a weapon, Charles. That she isn't worth saving."

Charles sighed heavily. "Do you think she might be Weapons X or could this be something else?" the man asked.

"My suspicion is that this is something else," Hank said, worriedly, but I've already put in a call to Remy to have him stop by."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because none of the other reports showed them having tattoos like this." Hank showed Charles the tattoo on the back of the young girl's neck.

L-E-0-4-1-9-7-7-M

Charles looked extremely grim. "We need to fix this Hank," he said.

Hank was waiting for Ellie when the young girl awoke again. "Professor Xavier is going to come in and talk to you, but we're mutants, like you," he said.

Ellie sat up in shock and fought as her stomach rolled. "What?" she asked, shocked at the implication. "There are others?"

Hank stared at her. "You didn't know," he said in realization.

"I can do things," Ellie said dully. Her chest tightened as the panic set in. The data stream surged, as it clouded over her vision and she braced against the headache. "I see things," she said with a tightening voice, her breathing starting to become labored.

"Breathe," Hank said, rushing over her and trying to comfort her. She flinched against his touch and Hank pressed an oxygen mask against her mouth.

Ellie grabbed the oxygen mask like it was a lifeline and took a couple deep breaths. Data surrounded her and she tried to shove it away. "I'm fine," she choked out. "I just can't control it. I've never been able to." She was still light-headed and she tried her hardest not to vomit. Eventually, the information stream calmed down.

"We can help with that," Hank said. "We can teach you control. We have an entire school dedicated to it." Ellie stared. "Can I ask what your power is?"

"I can see... I see technology. I can see the computer downstairs connected to the Internet, two cell phones, and the data coming from all the medical equipment in this room. The data everywhere. It can be very overwhelming. Sometimes it hurts." Her breath hitched as the wave came again. "So bad..."

Hank took her hand. "Breathe," he said calmly, placing the oxygen mask back on. "Copy me." She knew that she had a choice to trust Hank or not. She wanted it to end, but she wanted control. Her resolve cracked and she gave a gasping inhale. "That's it," Hank said. They sat there for a long time, inhaling and exhaling. Pretty soon, the data was dissipating and she was back in control.

"You're safe here." Hank said softly. "You don't have to be afraid any more. You're going to be okay. There are a lot of us that live here and you'd be more than welcome to stay."

Ellie's eyes went wide. She was in someone's home. Malick and the other men from ASSP could destroy these people, or worse they could make them like her. She tried to take off the mask and get off the bed, but Hank stopped her, bearing her weight as she realized that she couldn't even sit up without assistance. "They raised me to be a weapon," she said softly. "I'm dangerous. I appreciate the help, but you have to stay away from me. They'll come after me. I need to leave," she said, moving again. She broke free of the gentle grasp and stepped off the bed. Hank moved to stop her. As she tried to put weight on her legs, her knees buckled and she grimaced at the pain. Hank deftly caught her and lifted her easily back into bed.

"We don't care," Hank said. "We're the X-Men. We can protect you."

"I can't ask you..." Ellie started quietly.

"We're not letting you ask," Hank said in quiet forcefulness. "We're going to protect you." Hank stood up adjusted something with her IV. Her world started getting fuzzy. "Get some sleep, Eleanor," Hank said.

When she woke up again, there was a man in a wheelchair was waiting for her. "Hello," the man greeted with a smile. "I'm Professor Charles Xavier."

"You're the voice in my head," Ellie said slowly. She realized suddenly that her mask had been replaced by a nasal cannula. "You were the voice in my head when I was captured."

"Yes, I'm a telekinetic and can read minds. You reached out me when I was monitoring other mutants. I reached back."

"Hank says that you can teach me how to control my power?"

"I can if you would like," the man said. Unbridled tears cropped up in Ellie's eyes. "My dear, you have a beautiful gift."

"It's ugly," Ellie said, a tear escaping down her cheek. "I can't control it. It hurts a lot of the time - the non-stop chaos in my head. It all comes at me and I can't understand what's coming."

Xavier slipped his hand into hers and she flinched. "Let us help you," he said. He stroked her hair, which had the effect of releasing a pressurized valve. Ellie nodded, bursting into tears as relief came for what felt like the first time in her life.

Notes:

I figured Hank would use celsius since most of the world uses it. For the sake of us Americans, 41°C converts to about 106°F.

This DOES fit within the main story, which is why I'm posting it as an interlude. For those curious, this takes place around January 1st, 1995 and Ellie's 17.


	14. The Liberty and the List

"Dad," Ellie said as she stared down at the contents of the unwrapped box in front of her. "This … this couldn't be…"

"What?" Steve said, looking from the book on the history of art that Clint had gotten him.

"He got me his gun," Ellie said softly, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"I thought regifting was against the rules," Tony said with a frown.

Steve had gone over and taken a look. "Buck?"

"There was an estate sale upstate. This guy bought it and was blogging about possibly donating it to the Smithsonian. I tracked him down as a representative of James Barnes' estate and bought it back. I trade him a genuine Bucky Barnes signature for it."

"What's so special about a gun?"

"Technically it's a rifle. It's his Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle from the war," Ellie said with a happy smile. "The exact model that he shot Nazis with." She lifted the rifle out of the long box and hefted it to her shoulder, peering through the scope.

"Dude, that should go on Facebook after what those reports said," Darcy said.

"I don't know-" Natasha started.

"Go for it," Ellie said. "Instagram it. Hashtag Sentinel"

"It's a bad idea," Clint said. "It could be perceived as a threat."

Ellie groaned. "You're no fun," Ellie said.

"That's me," Clint said impishly. "Let's open more presents."

The others started in on the pile once more, but Ellie reached over and hugged her father. Bucky stiffened for a second, then hugged her back. "Thanks, Dad," she said quietly.

"Is this too weird for you?" Skye asked much later. Skye was curled up next to Bucky while he allowed Tony to tune his arm while Ellie lay on the other couch, observing. Skye and Bucky had gotten close during Christmas somehow. Maybe it was Ellie's fault for not paying attention, distracted by her own life, but when she did pay attention, Skye was already a constant present by Bucky's side.

Ellie shrugged. "It's weird," she admitted. "But life was never going to be average with us."

"You and Sam seem to be getting awful close," Skye noted after a moment of silence.

"It's been three months," Ellie argued. "It's all superficial the first three months." Skye raised an eyebrow. Her father even gave her a curious look. "What?"

"Nothing about your relationship is superficial," Skye pointed out. "Bucky and I are superficial. We make out and hack Dum-E to spray Tony with whipped cream."

"That was you?" Tony said, not looking amused.

Skye threw a wadded up tissue at Tony, then continued the conversation. "You're half-way to living with Sam and you go out with him so often that the press might actually lose interest in you two."

Ellie wanted to argue with Skye, but she'd never actually been assigned a room at the Avenger tower, despite being labelled as an Avenger by the press. Tony and Steve had offered her a position and she was actually considering it. "They just like to insinuate that I slept with Sam to become an Avenger when I'm not actually an Avenger." Bucky, Tony, and Skye all looked like they wanted to object to that, but Ellie held up a hand, continuing. "Look, it's only been three months. I was with Remy for a year before we got serious."

"No offense, but Remy's a bit of an asshole," Skye pointed out.

Bucky tensed. "Do I need to be concerned?" he asked, an edge to his voice.

"Remy's harmless," Ellie said, rolling her eyes. "Our relationship - neither of us wanted anything serious from the other. It ended when Remy wanted to get married for the simple reason that we had been together on and off for five years. At the time, I had no desire to get married." She wanted to add _at least not to Remy_ , but couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Which implies that things have changed," Skye said slowly, leaving the implication of the question in the air. Ellie regarded Skye carefully, saying nothing. The girl had changed, grown, since San Juan. She seemed more comfortable in her own skin and Ellie wondered if knowing where she came from helped her with all of that. Or maybe it was Ellie finally providing proof that Skye's family would always be there for her.

The rest of Christmas Day flew by. Ellie trained with the Avengers, caught up on e-mails, and spent a lot of time with Sam. The evening concluded with a meal Tony had catered, insisting that Ellie not be forced to cook for hours two days in a row. They spent the evening laughing and enjoying each other's company. Rhodey came over for the meal and Ellie was surprised to find him just as kind-hearted as Tony was, though a bit more overt about it. Some time between dinner and dessert, Rhodey, Sam, Bucky, Steve, and Ellie found themselves at a corner of the huge dining table, swapping war stories. While Rhodey, Sam, Bucky, and Steve had formally been in the armed forces, Ellie had, on occasion, been secretly contracted by a variety of governments for her retrieval skills. More specifically, retrieval of officers trapped behind enemy lines.

The blogs had blown up by the time they were all filling the corners, most of them theorizing that Ellie was the newest Avenger. Despite all the rumors, Ellie had no desire to become an Avenger. The others, unfortunately, seemed agreeable to the idea. By the next morning, Tony even designed her new pants, made of a more breathable material that made it easier for her to fight and a new hoodie that was made out of a bullet-proof material. The colors had been made red, white, and blue, and homage to her Uncle and home country.

"What do you guys think?" Ellie said curiously, modeling the new gear.

"I think you look like one of the team," Uncle Steve said excitedly.

The moment was ruined as Ellie froze. Clint and Natasha both were quiet as Ellie frowned, looked down dejectedly, and took off the hoodie. "I'm not though," Ellie said, putting the hoodie down on the table before exiting the room. She went to the gym and beat the shit out of a punching bag until Sam found her, her knuckles bruised and swollen.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked.

Ellie took a deep breath and smiled, the tension leaving her. "I'm fine, I just think I might need that vacation from all of this at some point soon."

"So go are we going Hawai'i? Maybe go back to Paris? Get some cabin in the middle of nowhere where no one can find us?"

Ellie giggled. Every time they tried to sneak a moment or two alone outside of Sam's quarters, someone had interrupted them. In fact, this was the longest that they had been alone together since Paris. "That sounds like a dream. Do we really have to stay for New Year's?" she asked.

"Steve and Bucky are looking forward to it. Apparently they went down to Times Square every year since they were kids and they're looking forward to getting to go down there."

"I'll stay, but I'm not going down to Times Square with Bucky." Ellie said. "The security risk is too great. Staying inside is the best for all parties involved." While Bucky remembered everything about being Bucky, he was still only getting pieces of his life as the Winter Soldier. Dr. Cho, Bruce, and Ellie all concurred that they may never all come back, but even the small pieces were progress.

"Eh, I think we can sell them on that," Sam said with a shrug. "You can't blame them for wanting to spend time with the next generation of Barnes'. Until Skye and Bucky start having kids of their own."

"Oh ew," Ellie gagged. "So not okay for me to think about that. I hate you for saying that."

"Even if you hate me, I still love you," Sam said with a cheeky grin.

Ellie pulled Sam around her as she smiled. "I love you too," she said softly.

Sam bent down the couple inches difference between them and kissed her softly. "So is that a yes on the New Year's Eve celebration?"

"Sounds like a massive pain to me," Ellie whined.

"Yeah, but at the end of the night I get to kiss you at midnight."

Ellie blushed. "But what will my boyfriend say?" she asked flirtatiously.

"He'd probably would compliment me on my taste," Sam said.

Ellie smiled. "Just promise me something? If the party becomes too much, we can have our own New Year's Eve celebration?"

"What, steal a bottle of bubbly and ring in the new year from the hot tub?"

Sam's bathroom had screens that JARVIS could tune to the outdoor security cameras so they could have a view of the city.

"Ooo," Ellie exclaimed. "Now that sounds like a good celebration," she said. "Fine, I'll spend New Year's Eve with everyone, but no massive party."

"You seem happier than you usually are," Sam said.

Ellie shrugged. "Skye may have pointed out to me that I shouldn't be apprehensive about my feelings for you based on how much time I've known you," she said quietly.

Sam stared at her, slowly stepping towards her. "Come on," Darcy's voice cried out, sending them back to their original positions as Darcy and Steve entered the room. "We have to send someone."

"Can't you find someone else?" Steve groaned.

"Who else are we gonna send? Bruce is too soft spoken to give them what-for, Bucky's out by default, Thor keeps talking about smiting and I'm pretty sure that won't be good for our image, and Tony's reputation with the press is lacking to say the least."

"What about Clint?"

"Not gonna happen," Clint said, coming up behind them. "To them I'm still SHIELD and while everyone in this room knows that SHIELD are good guys, the world isn't ready for the truth about SHIELD vs HYDRA to be out in the open just yet."

"Sam!" Steve said, his eyes going wide and pointing at his friend. "What about Sam?"

"What are you talking about?" Ellie finally asked.

"ABC offered to set up an interview with a representative of the Avengers to give them a platform to apologize regarding the commentary on their morning show on Christmas Day," Darcy explained. "I was explaining to Steve that he's the only one who could do it."

"Every single question they'll ask will about my relationship with your niece," Sam pointed out.

"You guys, I really don't need you to defend my honor or anything. You should see what some of the blogs have to say about me," Ellie said quietly, "and that was before I got involved with you guys."

"Pepper?" Steve offered. "Pepper practically runs the logistics of the Avengers and she's a known element to the media."

"Pepper's going to be overseas in meetings regarding Stark Industries and the future of renewable energy for the next two weeks," Darcy said. "Besides, that's not really her job. It's not mine either, by the way. I'm the head of _social_ media relations. Media relations is a whole different ball game and anyone you ask is going to tell you the same thing - you need to do it yourself."

"Guys, I don't need an apology," Ellie said again, a little louder.

"I suppose if I have to," Steve said.

"Hey!" Ellie shouted. Steve and Darcy finally both looked at her. "I don't. Need. An apology," Ellie ground out.

"We have to reply somehow," Darcy noted.

"No we don't," Ellie said. "They have the right to speak their minds. It says so in the first amendment. Let them say whatever they want to say. We don't need to give them more fodder to continue this."

"I know you don't care about it, but we do," Steve said. "Someone should apologize. It doesn't have to be to you."

"Fine," Ellie groused. "But I'm coming to watch."

And so, Ellie found herself in the air ducts of New York's ABC Headquarters, watching Steve looking extremely uncomfortable in his Captain America outfit as he sat, first in makeup, and then on stage. Albert, Robert, and Alicia all introduced themselves and the four of them made small talk until they were back from commercial.

"And we've returned from break with America's favorite Avenger joining us," Alicia said with a huge smile. "It's Captain America! Captain, thanks for being here!"

"Thanks for having me on," Steve said.

"First, before we ask you anything, we'd like to apologize for what happened on Christmas Day. I understand that some of the other Avengers saw it, including the Sentinel?"

Steve was nothing but professional. Ellie supposed he drew from his Hollywood days. "You know, I'm not going to lie, there were some pretty extreme reactions at the tower when we heard what was said."

"How extreme?" Robert asked, leaning forward.

Steve smiled calmly. "Well, nobody 'Hulked' out or anything," he said. All the hosts laughed. "But what you have to understand that the Avengers are a team. We spend all our time together and we've grown very protective of each other. The things that you said about the Sentinel bothered a lot of us."

"So she competes for your affections?" Albert asked. "Is her relationship with Sam Wilson not as steady as it appears?"

"She's our friend," Steve said, the threat of danger in his voice.

"I'm sure we can all understand that," Alicia said. "And when we come back from commercial, we're going to hear what it's actually like to be Captain America."

A bell rang and there was a flurry of touching up of makeup, chatting, her uncle glaring at everyone. Ellie fingered one of the knives she kept on her person to comfort herself.

Ellie closed her eyes and breathed, her anger hanging by a thread. "Tell us your favorite story about being Captain America," Albert suddenly said and Ellie snapped back to reality.

"I think the first story that comes to mind is my very first day in the Army," Steve said. "I arrived at Basic and they were running us through drills when Agent Carter arrived. Now, she was a beautiful dame for sure, but she could handle herself. One of the other soldiers mouthed off to her, so she just hauled off and slugged him. He went down like a bag or rocks with the rest of us staring at her. She was tougher than most of the Howling Commandos and could handle herself better than all of us. None of us ever thought for a second that she didn't belong, fighting beside us. It was an honor for us to fight beside her," Steve said. One of the hosts opened their mouth but Steve cut him off.

"So I guess I was a little shocked to hear that when the war ended, she was all but laughed out of the SSR. That they had her fetching coffee rather than having her run ops. She stood by our sides and helped us saved the world. She saw something in me that I hadn't even seen in myself. She pretty much single-handedly saved Howard Stark from being framed for some truly heinous crimes, and they still all but accused her of sleeping with me as a way to get to the top for the sole reason that she was a woman."

"Well," the host said, trying to recover from the derailment. "Thank God we don't live in the 1950s."

"Oh, but this still happens," Steve said, like a dog with a bone. Ellie rolled her eyes. This was ridiculous. "All the time. To a lot of women. In fact, it happened on this very show last week."

The main host shifted uncomfortably. "If this is about the commentary that took place..."

"You know, this _is_ about her, but this is also about all the other women who have to go through their coworkers and boyfriends and male friends saying stuff like that about them because they hear the media say it about the most powerful women in America and no one calls them on it. This is about the little girls who watch my friends save the world. Little girls who decide that _they_ can save the world too. That how they should expect to be judged based on how they _act_ rather how they _look_. So that's what I remember from my Army days, sir. I remember Peggy Carter and the fact that her _actions_ were judged by the Howling Commandos, not how she looked."

"It was all in good fun," Albert said uncomfortably.

"Except the woman in question goes by the Sentinel and she's my niece in all but blood," Steve snapped. Ellie winced. Every network in the world was going to speculate on what he meant by _that_.

Darcy was all smiles when he got off stage. "It's already trending on Twitter," she said. "The network executives aren't exactly happy, but I told them that it was this or have all the Avengers on and you were going to be the most… polite… about all of this."

"Has Thor calmed down yet?" Steve asked.

"Last I heard from Jane, he's been talked down from smiting, but he still isn't happy," Darcy said. Ellie smiled. Once Jane explained the nuances on the commentary regarding Ellie's position on the team, Thor had become so angry that he, Steve, and Bucky had gone to the Hulk room for several hours to cool off. "Apparently saying such things on Asgard can lead to getting your tongue cut out. The Allfather doesn't stand for such disrespectful talk."

"Ask him if he could get Lady Sif to come down here some time," Steve noted. "See how people like that…"

"Will do," Darcy said gleefully. Darcy was having way too good of a time with all of this… not that Steve wasn't enjoying himself.

"I still say Natasha should have done this," Steve said.

"We decided we didn't want to be sued for wrongful death," Darcy noted, checking her smartphone. "Clint was out too for the same reasons. Tony would have gone on a rant that wouldn't have made news because Tony rants about _everything_ , and sending Sam or Ellie would have just fed the flames of the fire. My pictures of you on stage are looking awesome."

"Don't they realize that most of the male members of team has close personal ties to the female members of the team?"

"You give the media too much credit. By default, they're kinda dumb. Pepper's already talking about a new ad campaign for the Avengers. Something geared towards little girls."

"Hashtag 'Fightlikeagirl'?"

"Ten points to Hufflepuff, Captain America just scored a pop culture reference."

"Hold on, you can't do that," Robert said, storming towards that. "I demand an on-air apology for that - that - that display."

Ellie dropped down from the rafters right in front of the anchor, blocking his path to her uncle. "Hey, are you crazy!" Robert exploded. Ellie straightened and Robert went pale. "W-what are you gonna do? Kill me?" Ellie smiled, but said nothing, simply taking a step towards him. "God, please don't kill me," he whined as he took a step back.

Darcy raised the camera. "Let me tell you something," Ellie said. "People all my life have criticized me for who I am or tried to change me into who they thought I should be. You and your _friends_ commentating on how I look and who I'm screwing isn't not even a drop in the bucket of the things that bother me. This all happened because the other Avengers insisted on it."

"Look, I'm sorry!" Robert cried.

"Don't apologize to me," Ellie said. "I don't need your apology or your validation. You should, however, apologize to every single little girl who saw what you said about me. Because you just told every single one of them that who they are will be judged not for who they are, but how they look."

Alicia was walking past and barely glanced up from her phone at the scene. "I've been trying to tell him that for years," she said tiredly. "I'm sorry about what I said. The network doesn't like it when I get all 'sisterhood' as they put it."

Ellie frowned and Steve looked at her sternly, making Alicia glance up from her phone and wilt. "I get it," Ellie said, nodding finally.

Steve and Darcy both looked at Ellie, wide-eyed. "You do?" They both said at the same time.

Ellie looked at them, "You honestly think I've never had to do something I didn't like doing to make ends meet?" She asked with raised eyebrows. Hell she'd _killed_ people in some of the jobs she had. Giving opinions she disagreed with wasn't bad in the spectrum of things. "I'm not happy about it but I can't fault her for needing to make rent."

"In real life, I'm a slob who can't cook, sends her clothes out, but graduated summa cum laude from NYU with a degree in Journalism. Here they make me do all the domestic segments and make me look like a blonde bimbo."

"Why aren't you writing or doing serious work then?" Steve asked. "Why do cooking and fluff pieces?"

Alicia laughed. "Are you kidding me? No one's gonna take a blonde, 32D seriously in any journalism job that will pay rent in this town unless you get super lucky and get a job at a place with a hiring practice like Stark Tower," she gave Darcy a pointed look before continuing, "and last I checked, SI wasn't hiring journalists. Before you suggest it, I'll fucking let fire ants on my eyeballs before I go into PR."

"She has a point," Darcy said. "Just because my major wasn't astrophysics doesn't mean I didn't ace Calculus and Physics in both High School and Undergrad. But Team Science Bros always talk down to me when they're explaining advanced concepts. Jane still thinks that all I know about an Einstein-Rosen bridge is that it's a wormhole. You know, just because I don't want to do science my entire life doesn't make me an idiot."

"I don't think you're an idiot," Steve said. Darcy blushed red.

Ellie smiled at the two of them. There was a pool back at the tower of when they were going to hook up. She grabbed a small, red card from her purse and passed it to Alicia.

"What's this?" Alicia asked curiously, looking at the white e-mail address on it.

"My card," Ellie said. "Send me your resume. If I'm impressed, I'll forward it onto my guy."

"Your guy?" Alicia asked, eyebrows knitted together.

"She has a guy everywhere," Darcy said proudly.

"I might know a guy who knows a silent part-owner of the _Times_ ," Ellie said, pausing and thinking. "Come to that, he also knows people high up at the _Globe_ , the _Chronicle_ , the _Tribune_ , and the _Sun_. Regardless, depending on your resume I might be able to swing you an interview."

Alicia raised her eyebrows at her. Robert glared at Alicia. "You're serious?"

"I mean, I'm pretty hard to impress," Ellie said with a shrug. "But sure. Impress me."

"I'll send it to you," Alicia said. "Even if there's a chance… thank you," Alicia finished, utterly speechless. Ellie nodded and the three of them left the station. They were silent on the ride back to the tower.

"Who the hell do you know that knows a part-owner of the _Times_?" Darcy asked, once the three of them entered the tower's lobby.

Ellie raised an eyebrow. "You really think Tony Stark is the world's first billionaire superhero?" she asked.

Steve and Darcy froze. "What?" Steve finally asked.

"I know two billionaires and three millionaires off the top of my head who are superheros and aren't Tony Stark," Ellie said.

"It's not Jo Rowling is it? Tell me Jo Rowling is a superhero!" Darcy demanded. "Tell me she has powers because that would be the best thing ever!"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "It's not Jo Rowling," she said, exasperated.

The media really took to '#fightlikeagirl', especially after Darcy released a video of Ellie and Natasha having a no-holds-bar training fight that spanned three different floors of the tower and lasted six hours. JARVIS edited the footage together, who seemed to having quite a good time coming to Ellie's defense for an AI. While it was great for the overall population to see that women could totally kick ass, the media recognized Ellie and mobbed her any time that she stepped out of the tower. They doubled their efforts any time that she and Sam stepped out. With the press watching the tower so closely, they limited Bucky's exposure to the outside world. No one was really ready for _that_ press release yet.

Even holed up in the tower and far from the press, life was far from peaceful. In the week between Christmas and New Years, Sam and Ellie had been up four times because of Ellie's nightmares. Bucky, it seemed, had nightmares every night that week. Steve seemed to be helping him through it (once or twice she had seen Skye in the kitchen with Bucky at three am, but Ellie wasn't thinking about what that meant).

New Year's had been a quiet affair. While Tony apparently usually had a loud raucous party, it was decided that Bucky and Bruce (and Tony and Ellie, though neither one would admit it) might react poorly to it, especially with some of them already being on edge due to the fireworks.

The night ended pretty badly, with Bucky in a ball in the elevator and Ellie in the air duct, both in a HYDRA flashback that neither of them would talk about. Ellie honestly didn't remember much, just that there were explosions and a lot of pain. It had taken Clint and Sam nearly two hours to talk Ellie down (they were pretty sure Bucky and Ellie were reacting to two different things - Bucky was fine after the fireworks had ended). Sam had immediately carried Ellie back to his quarters while she shook so badly all of them thought she was having a seizure; Clint, Natasha, Bucky, Skye, and Steve followed after them. Sam had set Ellie down and she immediately went to a corner, eyes wide and shaking like a leaf. They finally caved and called Hank, who noted that Ellie had some PTSD associated with fireworks and the best way to bring her out of it was to hold her tightly.

Sam and Ellie fell asleep with him holding her in that corner of the room and Ellie wondering what she'd ever done to deserve someone like Sam. She refused to talk about what had happened the next day, though Natasha cornered her alone and hit the nail on the head of what the flashback was about. As a thank you present to all of them, Ellie cooked them all steaks the size of Thor's biceps the next day, complete with sweet potato fries and chocolate pie for dessert.

The world surrounding the Avengers finally returned to what passed as normal at the tower, but Ellie's demeanor was decidedly less happy. Skye went back for Inhuman training not long after. She and Bucky had a private goodbye that Ellie _was not_ thinking about. They had apparently exchanged e-mails, and Ellie and Tony were set to the task of teaching Bucky how to use e-mail.

The morning after her flashback and about an hour after Skye left, Ellie's patience wore thin of sitting in one place. "I want to get out of here," Ellie said. "I just need to think."

"Do you mind if I came with you?" Sam asked. "Like I said, my apartment in Washington is available. It's not the same as the tower, but it's an independant space."

"That sounds perfect," Ellie said softly. Steve and Bucky had been disappointed that Ellie and Sam were going on vacation, but said that they understood. Clint and Natasha were used to it, and the others had not bonded as much with Ellie (though Ellie actually found herself becoming somewhat fond of Tony).

So they packed up and left New York. The media wasn't nearly so bad for them in Washington, since the Washington press core had more important things to do than write gossip stories. So Ellie and Sam had the chance to breathe and actually think. Sam brought Ellie to the VA and introduced her to everyone, including the black ops crew that met in the boxing gym. She kept in touch with everyone back in New York and abroad, Skyping every day with Bucky and Steve, who had been amazed by the technology and sending e-mails. Considering her powers, Steve and Bucky took to sending letters to Ellie, and Ellie gladly sent letters and postcards back.

Skye,  
Hope everything's well in the Afterlife. Make sure you listen to your instructors on controlling your powers. Trust me when I tell you that they really know what they're talking about. Everyone here is fine. We've taught Bucky how e-mail works, so I'm sure that you'll be hearing from him soon. I hope you know that he's now absolutely smitten with you. If he wasn't my father than I'd be saying it's adorable. Just whatever you do, don't share details. I know you're like my sister and we usually share everything, but this is just one of those things that I don't want to know. That I never want to know.

Anyway, since I've already been "named", the others are all debating what to call you. I'll leave it up to them to tell you the options, but I have to say that Bucky's suggestion is by _far_ my favorite. Gordon's been e-mailing me to keep me updated on your progress, by the way. Didn't I tell you when you were here? Uncle Steve and Tony have decided that they need more Avengers in case of multiple attacks or injury. You and Bucky have been added. You can say no if you want to - I did, though now I have to deal with Uncle Steve looking like a kicked puppy any time I enter a room he's in. Super soldiers…

Ellie

Wade,

With regards to the state that I found you in before Christmas, kindly remember to put the previously agreed to sign at the door that you are inside and occupied. Seriously Wade. I'm done dealing with your shit. Also, please stop sending lewd propositions to my uncle. And my father. Please.

L.E.

Clintasha,

Look, I know it would be totally awesome if we were one big happy Avenger-family, but I don't work for groups for a reason. I really like Sam and I want it to last as long as it can, but you know my track record with guys, Remy especially. Something _always_ goes wrong. Someone always takes a side that I can't back and then everyone gets offended and pissed off. So let me have the time I have with Sam while I have it. I don't want anyone to end up taking sides because of me.

E

After Sam caught up on work, Ellie and Sam started preparing to go on their real vacation as a couple. They'd to go to Paris and Greece to visit friends, then go to a small house Tony owned in Monaco. They had two weeks away from the world to unwind. But Ellie wanted to do something for Sam. She wanted to meet Riley. Before she could though, she received an urgent e-mail from Coulson that they had to meet. Ellie brought Sam along for backup, figuring that if Coulson wanted some kind of revenge over Skye, Sam could call for Avenger backup.

Per Coulson's request, they met in an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. Per Ellie's request, Coulson came alone. "Coulson," Ellie said. "What do you need?"

"I wanted to discuss Project Oversight and the Theta Protocol," Coulson said stiffly.

"The Theta Protocol's in place. I need confirmation on a couple more things before I can confirm the same for Oversight," Ellie said.

"You really agree with all of this?" Coulson asked.

"I think everyone needs to realize that the problems that are coming are bigger than HYDRA, SHIELD, and the WSC put together," Ellie said. "Historically making who someone is a crime doesn't end well."

"It's not that I don't agree, but do you really think dismantling the Index is the answer?" Coulson pressed.

"You really think having every powered person you know about on one centralized list is a good idea?" Ellie said. "Listen, Coulson, most of the people on the Index haven't done anything wrong or have proven themselves that they're no longer dangerous. Putting _the Avengers_ on the Index? Was that really SHIELD's play?"

Coulson sighed. "It wasn't supposed to go like this. It was supposed to be better."

"So make it better," Ellie pressed, thanking God that Sam was staying silent beside her. "We can be your allies Coulson, or we can be your enemies. The Brotherhood is already apprehensive about all of this. I don't know how many of them I can keep from fleeing from a SHIELD alliance if you want us to _register_ like cattle."

Coulson sighed heavier this time. "I'll take it into consideration," he said.

Suddenly, Ellie's world exploded. A huge burst of data made Ellie double over as she gave a shout of pain. Agents burst into the factory. The majority of them surrounded her while she was incapacitated but she immediately started fighting them off. "Keep resisting and they die," came a voice.

Ellie froze, seeing the knives to Coulson's and Sam's throats. She hesitated, and whoever these people were, they used that to their advantage. Four of them bull-rushed her, grabbing her arms. two more went for her legs, a last masked agent last held a syringe and stepped forward, injecting the drug into her carotid. Ellie didn't fight it, allowing herself to be sedated to keep Sam safe. At least until she could get the upper hand.


	15. The Bridge and the Brotherhood

Note: Within this universe, Jiaying did die. This combined with Ellie's influences caused some changes to Afterlife.

Melinda May didn't like this. When a hidden faction of SHIELD had burst into the base three days ago, when she had force Coulson to run, when they found out that Bobbi and Mack had betrayed their trust, May had made her decision in less than thirty seconds - protect Phil Coulson at all costs. May was learning that she may yet regret that choice. Of course, only Phil would make a pit stop while on the run to meet with Ellie and Sam Wilson in proximity to a strikingly large number of cameras.

So why Gonzalez had insisted on grabbing all three of them, May didn't know. She had tried to convince the man that neither Ellie nor Sam could provide them with any information. Ellie had refused to work with SHIELD since what happened to Donnie Gill almost six month ago, and they still had no idea where Ellie had sent Skye

"This is a bad idea," Melinda voiced.

"The woman was a weapon for HYDRA for twenty years," Gonzalez said. "If we can convince her to work for us, we can finally defeat them."

"What if she doesn't want to?" May pressed.

"We can't afford for her not to agree to this," Weaver added. "We need someone like her on her side. Convince her that this will benefit everyone for her to help us with Fury's toolbox."

May looked at the pair. "You want me to go in there?"

"You built some kind of relationship with her," Gonzalez said. "We need you to use that."

Melinda was hesitant as she entered the room. The spy in front of her was just starting to wake up. "Was all this a ruse then?" Ellie asked evenly, straining against her bonds. Melinda couldn't ignore the look of betrayal on Ellie's face. "Are you HYDRA?"

"We need a favor," May said, her eyes strangely pityingly, silently begging Ellie to play along, not knowing what Gonzalez would do if Ellie refused to cooperate.

"I'm not going to grant HYDRA any favors," Ellie said, straining against her bonds. May could see them cutting into her wrists as blood started to drip to the floor. May felt the self-hatred start to grow in the pit of her stomach. "You're not getting my father either."

"We're not HYDRA," May said again. Internally rolling her eyes. Gonzalez was a moron for doing this. "We're really SHIELD."

"Like I'd believe you," Ellie spat.

"Look, we're working against HYDRA. We're SHIELD," May snapped. She tried to hide her fear behind anger. Everything was spinning out of control.

"If you're SHIELD, then where's Coulson?" Ellie shot back. "He could have just asked me for whatever you guys want. I'm not so hard-hearted as to not _listen_."

"Coulson's no longer in charge," May said quietly. That was a lie, May noted to herself, but she couldn't let those listening known that she was on Coulson's side. "He's unstable. Has been for a while. He went after something that he shouldn't have."

"He didn't seem that unstable to me the last few times I talked to him. And besides, how many times did Fury go after something he shouldn't have?" Ellie pointed out. "That's what SHIELD does. It pokes that which it does not understand. It's been doing that since it's conception."

"And look where it got us," May shouted. She could barely contain the pain. She hadn't understood that day she had earned her name and reputation. She had gone in without intel and now she was paying the price.

Ellie sat back in her chair, reminding May of footage of Natasha Romanoff when she had been brought into SHIELD by Barton. She watched as Ellie studied her. The minute facial expressions and body language. May suspected that Ellie could even pick up on eye dilation and how quickly May's heart and lungs were working. "That isn't my problem," Ellie said diplomatically. "If you're not HYDRA, and I'm not saying I fully believe you, why do you feel the need to capture Sam and I? What request is so vital that you simply can't just ask?"

"Fury gave Coulson a toolbox. A computer within a cube." May explained. "It's not to connected to any network and we can't get into it by any normal means. We've had agents look at it and they have no idea how to get into it..."

"I know where you're going with this and it's not a good idea," Ellie said. The ex-HYDRA spy actually looked tense at the idea.

"We need you to touch the cube," May said. Ellie shook her head in her refusal. "Be reasonable, this could win the war against HYDRA."

Ellie closed her mouth and shook her head again. Eventually she refused to answer their questions. Hours passed. May finally took a break, stepping out and took a deep breath in as Weaver passed her a cup of coffee.

"You're doing well," Weaver said.

"She's not going to give us anything," May pointed out. "Whatever you have on her… apparently there's quite a bit more that's never been written down any more. She won't allow it. She's… skittish of groups at best. There's a reason why you caught them in DC and not New York. She's scared of something, but no one can ever figure out what."

"Like HYDRA isn't enough to be frightened of?" Weaver pointed out. "Perhaps it isn't that she's scared of some mysterious something, simply that she knows more about HYDRA than we know about. We could use that intel."

"She's not going to give it up. She's trained for this."

"Then you'll just have to extract it from her," Weaver said.

May stared at her, horrified. "What the hell happened to you. This is SHIELD. We're better than this. We have to be better than this."

"Things change. HYDRA murdered half my students and I killed a good many of their men." Weaver said coldly. "You know what I learned? SHIELD and HYDRA are the same. They just want to control the world while we want to protect it."

"I won't ask her any more questions," May said. "She's done nothing wrong."

"Then we'll start questioning Coulson to get him to open the box," Gonzalez said, entering.

May froze. Ellie was trained to withstand interrogation. Coulson was trained too, but not like Ellie. Ellie could take it and recover whatever physical damage that could be done. "Fine," May ground out.

May went back to questioning Ellie, but nothing changed. After a few days, she refused the food and water they gave her, and then she refused to sleep. She refused everything. She lost weight as the days passed. They tried other means of getting her to cooperate. They tortured her, exposed her to severe sensory deprivation, and threatened Sam, but she said nothing to any of it. They thought that they could break her will, but she was built to be unbreakable.

May was getting more and more frustrated in their interrogations as the days passed. "Look," she finally said. "This whole hunger strike thing needs to end," May was arguing with her some time later. They had brought her twelve meals since she had been captured.. "It's been days since you've eaten anything. Not even _you_ can live without food." Ellie said nothing and continued to stare straight ahead, swaying slightly from lack of sleep and hunger. May shot forward, kneeing Ellie in the ribs as gently as possible while still making it look believable. "They're threatening Coulson," May whispered quickly, too quietly for the mics to pick up. May backed up. "Tell us or something far more nefarious will happen. It's logical for us to do this. Coulson's hidden a lot of secrets from all of us. He put Skye on the Index. He'll put you on the Index. He's out of control…"

A voice came through the speaker in the corner. "Please exit interrogation, Agent May." May got up, looking like a trapped animal - more trapped than Ellie was - then exited the room. Ellie didn't even have time to blink before gas was filling the room. Her world went dark before her body slumped to the ground.

May hadn't been allowed in the room for the next part. Ellie had been strapped down, despite May's protest, but when medical began entering the room, May reached her breaking point. She lunged forward only to be caught by Oliver.

"I wondered if you were truly loyal to SHIELD," Gonzalez said. May tried her hardest to break out of Oliver's grasp but another agent came and helped him. "Your loyalty to Coulson won't help you any more."

"Go to hell," May said defiantly.

"I can't," Gonzalez said. "Too much to do. Agent Mack, take her to the brig." 

Ellie stirred and saw Bobbi sitting on the chair next to her hospital bed. She wondered who else was in on this coup. Heavy restraints tied her down. Heavier than her previous bindings. She tried moving, but they did not have any give. She took stock of her body. She found that they had fed a feeding tube up her nose and down her throat and an IV was keeping her hydrated with saline. Some small part of her panicked as the feral thought arose that they would poison her. "I'm not doing it," Ellie said. "What you're asking for, I won't do it willingly."

"Ellie, we need to see what's inside that box, and you're not giving us much of a choice." Bobbi was calm and cool as if she were explaining to her why the sky was blue.

"You don't have to do this," Ellie pleaded, desperate now herself. Bobbi looked incredibly sad as she took the cube off the desk.

"We need this to win against HYDRA." Bobbi said, "you must understand that. You'll be a hero." She then placed the cube in her hand and Ellie Saw. She saw everything all at once. She saw every secret that SHIELD was hiding. Her mind put together pieces of information… and the next second she was watching herself writhe in the hospital bed, another she was reading pieces of SSR reports. Something needed to be let out or she would explode; there was too much information in her head. She was vaguely aware that she was verbally spewing out binary code as the pressure in her head continued to build, but slowed down.

All of a sudden, everything stopped. She started sobbing, unable to control herself as she struggled against the restraints. It was more information than she had ever consciously accessed. There was no stopping the influx of information. Not with something like this. She wordlessly stared at Bobbi, who was talking to someone on coms. She had saved Bobbi's life, and now Bobbi had turned her back on Ellie for the sake of someone else's coup. The world was a horrible place. People were selfish and petty and cruel. She had been fooling herself that it could be anything more. But then in a second of relief, she remembered Bucky. That was right, she had Bucky, Steve, Skye, Clint, Tasha, and Sam. She had six people that she could count on. Six people to trust. Even six people to love. It was more than she had ever hoped for as a child and it was worth fighting for. So she fought.

The cube was returned to her hand and the corresponding pain and pressure returned. Ellie started to spew binary again, mindlessly. It wasn't long before she lost all sense of time and thought. She was surrounded by zeros and ones and the pressure in her head ebbed and flowed more like the ocean in a hurricane than the tide. Sometimes she thought that she screamed, but she wasn't sure if that was real or her imagination. Other times she thought that she would stop spewing data to beg whoever was listening for them to kill her, but that could have been all inside her head as well. Time was meaningless. She was everything in the box and everything in the box was her. Their two identities became interwoven and they existed outside of time. She clung desperately on to her memories of her family as the pain rolled on and on.

At some point, she was watching all the security channels on the _Illiad_. Or maybe she had always been watching them. Maybe she saw all the security feeds on all the bases. Regardless, she saw the Avengers come aboard, with Bucky in the lead. Mack came at him with a gun and Bucky tossed it aside before sending the man overboard. She babbled in binary as Bucky stormed the ship, knocking out anyone in his way. He made a bee-line for the cage that Ellie had been locked into.

The door flew of the hinges as he kicked open the door. Clint and Natasha freed Sam and they sped into Ellie's cage, while Steve and Tony spread out through the rest of the ship to deal with the other members of RealShield and unlock the other cell doors. Bobbi gave a wordless shout as Bucky instantly lifted her into the air and squeezed. In the next instant, Sam was next to Ellie's body as Clint was shouting "Get it out of her hand! It's electronic. It's hurting her!"

Sam pried the cube out of her clenched fist and tossed it away. She was sucked back into her body as if being forced through a straw. It hurt. She let out a cry at how cold she was all of a sudden. Her heart pounded. She couldn't breathe. Her body didn't seem to want to work. "Bob!" came a voice as Lance rushed in. Lance launched himself at Bucky and Bucky threw Lance into a wall without hesitating. Bobbi went limp and Bucky released her. She bonelessly fell next to Lance's stunned form. Sam was undoing Ellie's restraints. and checking her over. Her wrists were swollen, red, and bleeding, severely broken from struggling against the restraints. Everyone except Bucky gasped at the wounds, while Ellie's father let out a growl. Ellie tried to tell him that she was fine, frowning when the zeros and ones came out again.

Bucky turned to Sam. "What's wrong?" he asked. His voice cried of his desperation.

Ellie tried to ask them what was happening as she saw the rest of the Avengers with Coulson entering the room. Coulson was bleeding from his shoulder.

Ellie flinched back when Tony entered the room, but relaxed when she realized the data around him wasn't going to attack her. "What the hell?" Mack asked from the door, dripping water all over the deck. "The Winter Soldier? Have you all cracked?" Mack's hands were cuffed behind his back as Tony half-marched, half-dragged him into a conference room and secured him to a chair while Mack stared at Bucky in shock. Steve entered the room, tearing up when he saw his niece.

Bucky turned away from her to face Coulson and started speaking. Due to the action, Ellie realized she could no longer see her father, making her anxious, though she didn't know why. Ellie tried to turn her head. Tried to find him. "Daddy? Daddy, where are you? Daddy please?" She cried out of frustration, reaching in his direction as English refused to come out.

Bucky seemed to know the reasoning behind her cries on instinct. He rushed back over to Ellie and scooped her in his arms cradling her. She couldn't recall ever being held like that. She promised herself she wouldn't cry but it seemed that she couldn't keep such a promise.

"Wait, all those zeros and ones..." Tony was saying, anger bleeding into his voice. When had he entered the room? "Is she speaking in binary?"

"Can someone please explain to me what's going on?" Coulson demanded.

"They tried to break into that box thing using Ellie here as a crowbar," Clint said angrily, pointing to the toolbox that was now on the table. There were too many people in the room and she couldn't keep track of them. Sam, it seemed, was splinting her wrists and grabbed her hands, rubbing them to reassure her that he was there. Her father and her lover kept her grounded.

Once he finished the splints, Sam held her hand, but seemed to be holding it like it was china. The world was going fuzzy. She tried to hold his hand tighter. She couldn't feel him. She was having trouble feeling anything. She had to feel them. Without them she was sure that she'd be lost in the sea of data.

Sam said something. Self-hatred and regret were in Sam's voice. She wanted to tell him that she didn't blame him and she was okay, but the conversation was moving too fast for Ellie to do much more than follow.

"We've been looking for you guys for two weeks," Tony said. He said something else. Ellie didn't know what. It was getting to nearly impossible to concentrate.

"I have to get her to the jet," Bucky said gruffly. "We have to get her to Doctor Cho." She never wanted to leave her father's arms. She'd never felt so safe in her life. It seemed fine by him. He didn't seem too keen on letting her go either. She remained awake, but her awareness of anything but her father's arms and Sam's hand was slowly drifting away until that's all she was aware of at all. 

"You and Sam go," Steve said. "I'll wait for Fury to get here so we can deal with..." he gestured to the unconscious bodies around them.

Bucky shifted Ellie in his arms and Ellie whimpered as her breath hitched. Steve leaned over her and stroked her hair. She calmed down. "See you later, Ellie," Steve said.

Clint and Natasha seemed to be debating something before Natasha stepped forward. She bent over and whispered in her ear. "Get better soon, okay. We need you. I need you." Ellie didn't respond. "We won't leave you behind, I promise, сестра (1)."

Bucky carried Ellie to the jet and Clint immediately got in the pilot's seat. Bucky continued to cling to her, refusing to put her down. Sam looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole and cry, but seemed to be holding it together. Ellie whimpered almost inaudibly when Clint turned on the engines and prepared it for liftoff. Bucky held her tighter. "It's okay," he said softly. "You're safe, baby girl. I promise you're safe. I'm not going to let anyone near you." Bucky and Sam both looked at her worriedly as Ellie didn't respond at all.

Clint pushed the engines as fast as they would go, especially when Ellie wouldn't respond to any of his or Sam's questions or the little squeezes that they gave her. After an agonizing span of time, Clint landed at tower and they were able to de-plane. Cho and several techs were waiting for them.

"Lay her on the gurney," Cho instructed, indicating the one that they had brought.

Bucky laid her down gently, but the moment she lost contact with him, she screamed so loud that Bucky picked her up again and clung to her. She immediately quieted down. Cho blinked then nodded. "Alright, can you hold her in your lap?" she asked Bucky.

Bucky sat on the gurney and adjusted the both of them so that Bucky lay cross-legged at the head of the gurney. Ellie sat in his arms, not reacting when Cho inserted the IV went into Ellie's arm or started to examine her severely broken wrists, which weren't healing with the same speed they normally would. Bucky growled when some of Dr. Cho's assistants tried to help. Cho looked unimpressed, but allowed him the space.

Cho shone a light in each of Ellie's eyes; she didn't blink or register that she saw any of it. Finally the doctor nodded and said, "We need to get her to medical so that I can examine her further." Sam pushed the gurney without being asked and Clint followed behind like a lost puppy. Bucky couldn't help but be amazed at the loyalty his daughter inspired.

Once they reached medical, Cho hooked her up to a hearing test and nodded in satisfaction that Ellie's brain was at least registering noise. Next she applied leads to Ellie's forehead and the back of her neck while Bucky carefully supported her head.

Apart from the screams she uttered when Bucky had let her go, she hadn't said a word and wasn't reacting to any sounds or sights or even the smell of the medical wing.

"It looks like catatonia," Sam said as he repeatedly squeezed Ellie's hands with no effect. He seemed desperate to find a reason. "Maybe some kind of extreme shock?"

"There's definitely an element mental disconnect present," Doctor Cho murmured using a tiny needle to carefully check the pain receptors of all four limbs of Ellie's body. Bucky grew worried when none of them responded. "But I suspect there's something more going on."

"What does that mean," Bucky cried, panicked. "What's wrong with her?"

"You mentioned that the last time she was over-exposed to data she had a seizure?" Cho asked.

Bucky nodded. "Four of them, in quick succession," he noted.

Doctor Cho nodded, "I suspect she may have had a good deal more than just four this time. I want to run some scans on Ellie that would require for her to be alone. Given her reaction to you releasing her, I think we need to sedate her."

Bucky looked hopelessly lost for a moment before he nodded. Cho pulled a syringe out of a drawer and uncapped it. She tested it before pushing the contents into Ellie's IV.

Ellie blinked as the drug began to take effect. Her eyes focused for the first time since they had rescued her. They scanned the room before landing on Sam. She looked terrified and in pain, screwing up her face and tears streaming down her cheeks. She had both of Bucky's hands now in a death grip. If his daughter didn't need him so badly, he'd return to the _Illiad_ for revenge. He'd kill everyone just based on the tension in her body. She fought to keep conscious. "La-la-la" she mouthed. She couldn't form words. Bucky held her tighter. She trembled and tears leaked from eyes. In one last effort to fight the drugs, she arched upwards, then collapsed, her eyes sliding shut.

Bucky tentatively got off the bed; he watched as Cho put Ellie through a battery of tests, most of which he didn't understand. Internally, the Asset was yelling for it to stop, but Sam must have noticed because he immediately came over to him and nodded, "It's not hurting her," Sam said quietly. "On my life, I swear that it's not hurting her."

"We just completed an MRI of her brain," Helen said. "After so many seizures, I wanted to make sure that there was no physical evidence of trauma. The scan came back clean, but there's definitely evidence that she's had multiple seizures in the last twenty-four hours. To be on the safe side, we're also getting a CT scan and a CAT scan. Next I'm collecting blood, urine, spinal fluid, for any number of infections that could be causing this. I'm also going to run an EEG and EMG to check for brain activity and any irregularities. We'll go from there."

Sam looked to Bucky like he was about ready to burst into tears. For a long time, Bucky had been preparing to give Sam 'the shovel talk' about dating his daughter, but over time he wondered if that was really necessary. Sam seemed to be everything Ellie needed. There were times that his flexibility with his daughter astounded him. When Ellie was in a panic about something she didn't want to do, Sam had a different plan. Sam anticipated his daughter's needs and desires and had done his best to please her. Now it seemed that Sam was cracking under the pressure of this latest development.

Sam seemed to collapse in on himself as Ellie was wheeled back into her room. Darcy suddenly rushed over to him, catching him as he collapsed. Jane wasn't far behind. "Sam, hey… hey… Sam," Darcy said. "She's gonna be okay, Sam."

"JARVIS, run protocol Pandora 1 on room M101," Helen said quietly. After Ellie's exposure to MECS, Tony and JARVIS had worked to create protocols in the tower for Ellie's benefit. Pandora 1 was a protocol to shut down all technology in any medical room so they wouldn't hurt Ellie more while she was healing.

"It could be permanent," Sam said quietly. "Oh my god… what if it's permanent?"

"Ellie needs you to be strong right now, Sam," Jane said quietly.

Sam sat up, took several halting sobs, then got up and curled around Ellie in her hospital bed.

"We hear from Stevie yet? Bucky finally asked, finding his voice.

"No," Darcy said. "But Natasha phoned and said they could use you. Apparently some of the members of the party that did this are being challenging."

Darcy smiled at Bucky, even through her tears. Bucky couldn't fault her for doing so. It had been a trying week for all of them, After a few days of radio silence from Ellie, Steve and Bucky had begun to get worried, after a week, everyone else had joined them, Bucky close to a full-on panic. It had taken four days to figure out it wasn't HYDRA, another day to find out it was SHIELD of all organizations, and a final one to find that Ellie and Sam had been taken to the _Illiad_.

Bucky glanced back at Sam and Ellie. "We can take care of them," Darcy reassured him. "We'll call you with any updates.

Bucky nodded as he left his daughter's room. He wanted to make the people who did this to his daughter to suffer the way his daughter was. To be tied down and at the mercy of others for the rest of their miserable lives.

"Wait up, dude," Clint said, racing up behind him. "I'm coming with you."

"I thought you would've wanted to stay here," Bucky said.

Clint shook his head. "I hate hospitals. Being in them is god awful, but watching people I love like that… I just… I can't."

"You're very close to Ellie," Bucky noted gruffly after a few moments of couldn't help but be curious about the variety of characters that Ellie seemed to have in her life.

"She's like a big sister," Clint says. "Every once in awhile, she comes over to my place, cleans all the rotten stuff out of my fridge, does my laundry, buys me food, and makes sure I'm clean, fed, and sane. She annoys the crap out of me sometimes. I'm a grown man and can take care of myself, but she's always there for me when I need help. _Always_. There was this one time that I got trapped in the middle of a blizzard in Siberia with a dislocated shoulder and some bruised ribs. The snow was falling so thick, SHIELD couldn't land the plane and the bad guys were closing in, just a couple hours away. Of course, Ellie came to my rescue with a pack of sled dogs." Clint went quiet for a moment. "She has no life outside of helping other people. We say we're her family but in reality we only see her a couple weeks a year unless we need her, which, I'm not gonna lie, we do frequently. Apart from the years that Skye lived with her, I think the last six months is the longest she's stuck around anyone since she left the mutants who rescued her."

"Do you think she'll leave after this?" Bucky asked as they both strapped into the front seats of the quinjet.

Clint shook her head. "You're her father, Bucky," he explained quietly. "That means the world to her. She's not about to give that up."

Bucky's eyes went wide when he realized that they had all been forgetting something, or rather, some _one_. He pulled out his phone and dialed a now-familiar number.

"Wassit?" came a sleepy voice. Bucky winced, noting that it was the small hours of the night where he was calling.

"Skye, we found her," he told his girl as gently as he could, putting her on speaker.

"Is she okay?" Skye asked frantically, immediately awake. A rustling told them she was getting out of bed and starting to get dressed.

Bucky and Clint exchanged a glance and Clint effortlessly took the reins of telling Skye the bad news.

"It's not good, Skye." Clint said thickly. "They were torturing her with a computer. She's catatonic right now, can't even respond to pain."

"The others will want to know," Skye said. "Text me the coordinates and I'll be right over."

"We're actually headed back to where Ellie was being tortured. We're holding the people responsible. Things are a little fuzzy on what exactly happened. We think SHIELD's involved with all this somehow."

There was a long moment of silence then Skye said, "Send me those coordinates. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

"Already sent," Clint said, tapping a few keys on the phone. "See you when we see you."

The ride back to the _Illiad_ was tenser and quieter than the ride away. Bucky tried not to think about all the ways he would torture Bobbi and the others responsible for his daughter's current situation. The fact that he wanted to he was pretty sure was all Bucky. The fact he _could_ … he wasn't sure how much of that was the Soldier and how much was Bucky.

Coulson greeted them when they arrived on the _Illiad,_ looking grim-faced, his arm already in a sling. "We know who was behind all this?" Clint asked curiously.

"Gonzalez," Coulson grunted.

"Gonzalez?" Clint asked, surprised. "Didn't HYDRA kill him?"

"Apparently not. He, Tomas Calderon, Marcus Oliver, and Anne Weaver formed a different SHIELD faction. They've been holding Lance Hunter here for about a month now; apparently he found out everything. Given his cooperation, Steve agreed to release him and two of my scientists who have proven that they knew nothing about any of this prior to the coup."

"FitzSimmons?" Clint asked shocked as they descended below deck. "They pulled FitzSimmons into all of this?"

"Apparently Agent Weaver convinced Agent Simmons that it was in her best interests to cooperate and work on opening the Toolbox, as they refer to it. Agent Fitz refused to cooperate for three days before he was forced to cave." They entered a conference room. On one end was a group of people who were all zip tied to chairs. Bucky recognized one of them as the blonde who had been torturing Ellie. On the other end was another group of people sat looking decidedly haggard. A curly-haired _kid_ lay on a stretcher, wincing, as Natasha gently bandaged his arm. He had electrical burns going up his arms and he had all the appearances of suffering from the after-effects of sensory and sleep deprivation. It seemed that Ellie wasn't the only one that they had tortured.

"That's Leo Fitz." Clint said quietly. "He's an engineer. He'd give you a run for your money, Tony, or he would have before…" Tony and Bucky both looked at him sharply, questioningly. "A HYDRA agent embedded with Coulson's team overtook the plane hey were on. Fitz and the woman over there, Simmons, were able to get to a medpod, and the HYDRA agent dropped them into the ocean. Apparently there was only enough oxygen for one, so Fitz took one for the team… he's still recovering from the brain damage it caused."

Bucky's fists tightened almost involuntarily while Steve had his 'angry' face on. The idea that one teammate would willingly do that to another… Bucky didn't think there _was_ a worse crime.

"Anyway, these guys tortured Fitz for a couple days." Clint explained. "Eighteen months ago he was SciTech only. Not cleared for the field. I'm seriously impressed with how long he held out. It wasn't until they threatened to kill Simmons that he agreed to interpret the binary Ellie was emitting. That was only yesterday."

"I take it you disapprove, Captain?" An elderly man, tied to a chair on the 'evil SHIELD', said. "It wasn't much worse than what you've done in the fight against HYDRA, against him." Gonzalez glared at Bucky.

"I never tortured someone just because of choices that were made for them," Steve shot back. Bucky couldn't help but bristle at the idea of his daughter being tortured. "I never rejected someone because of things that they can't control. You're not judge and jury here or anywhere."

"Of course not, but for her to be eligible for a judge and jury, she'd have to be human," Gonzalez said. Bucky took a step towards Gonzalez, intent on shutting the bastard up, but Steve put a hand up and stopped him. "Because any jury in this country would convict her just for breathing. They'd be afraid of what she could do, and rightly so."

Steve put his hand down, gesturing for Bucky to tell them what Cho said, at least a part of it. "You probably gave her brain damage, did you know that?" Bucky asked. "She can't do anything by herself anymore. Her powers aren't designed to work with direct contact. It was too much information."

"The only use we have for freaks like that is as tools," a very tall, black man said, speaking up.

"That's Mack," Clint supplied into Bucky's ear as he put his full weight into Bucky to stop him from launching forward.

Bucky was held back by Clint, so it was Steve who hauled Mack up and shoved him into the wall. "You say that again and you'll wish I let her at you," he growled, gesturing towards Natasha with his head. Everyone froze. No one alive save for Bucky had seen Steve so angry, and Bucky had only seen him this angry once.

They had been twelve and come across a bunch of kids that were torturing a pair of kittens to death. Bucky had stood amazed while Steve's rage actually caused him to win the fight. The bullies running off for easier prey, Steve's and Bucky's attentions turned to the kittens immediately. They had been too injured to save, but Bucky and Steve had each held one close back in their apartment as they died. Natasha and Clint were angry as well, fixing Mack with particularly nasty looks on either side of him. It had taken a moment for Bucky to realize that he was growling dangerously at Mack.

Mack at least had the common sense to realize the weight of his words and he appeared to be afraid of the combined efforts of all four of them.

"No matter how tall you are, buddy," Tony quipped, a bit of a bite in his own voice. "You will go down against us. Ellie's an Avenger, no matter what she likes to say on the matter. You take on one of us, you take on all of us."

"Or you can just give me a whack at him," came a familiar voice.

Bucky looked over and saw his girl, her hair drawn back in a messy bun and looking sleep-deprived, but still dangerous, in her tactical gear.

"Skye," May gasped.

"Agent May," Skye said coldly.

Jemma was regarding her with unease and fear, Bucky saw, while Fitz looked relieved to see his friend. Coulson looked rather shocked at her arrival, but said nothing. Skye strode up to him. "How'd it go?" Bucky asked. Skye had easily gone through the training in Afterlife and was required to pass a final test which she had taken the day before. Tony's promise had remained - as soon as she was finished training, she could be an Avenger.

Skye grinned widely. "Just call me Quake," she said loudly referencing Bucky's suggestion for a superhero code name. Bucky embraced her, lifting her to his face and kissing her soundly. Tony gave a whoop as Natasha and Clint allowed themselves to clap for a few moments to celebrate the achievement, even in the middle of the issue at hand.

Coulson's eyes went round as saucers as his hand automatically reached for a weapon that wasn't there. Lance had his gun out and aimed at Bucky in two seconds. The scientist known as Fitz aimed an unidentifiable weapon (not a gun, his mind supplied), at him with a shaky hand. May also reached for her weapon, but did not unholster it. Bucky reacted in the same instant, shifting him and Skye around so that he would take all the bullets and she would be protected.

The Avengers all shouted in protest, as did Skye, unwilling to play, as she put it many times in their daily correspondence over email and Skype, the damsel in distress. "Bucky, stop!" Skye exclaimed, rushing around him. She reached out a hand and all of a sudden, Lance's and Fitz's guns fell apart in their hands.

"What the _bloody_ hell?" Lance exclaimed as he watched his gun fall apart. "What did you just do?"

"Ahm aff me heid," Fitz said, staring, wide-eyed at Skye. "Jemma, hae ah hit me heid? Lass jist destroy'd the ICER!"

"I see it too, Fitz," Jemma said distantly, looking even more fearful. "I see it too."

"Nice move," Tony said. "You got more under your hat?"

"I'll show you later," Skye said. "Some of my moves we're gonna need the Hulk Room for."

"You're-" Jemma stammered. "You're-"

"The term is Inhuman," Skye said. "Part human, part Kree."

"All Avenger," Tony said at the same time Clint chimed in with, "All badass."

"You're dangerous, is what you are," Gonzalez said. Steve had yet to let him down.

Skye turned and shot such a glare at the man that Bucky immediately put an arm around Skye's waist on instinct. The next moment, Skye launched forward, Bucky actually having to make an effort to hold her back. " _You_ nearly killed my sister. You bet your ass that I'm dangerous."

" _I'm_ not a weapon or a tool. We're trying to _shield_ the world from mutants and super soldiers and _freaks_ like all of you," Gonzalez snapped.

"If you think that's what my organization is for, Gonzalez," came another voice from the doorway. Another voice from the dead. "Then you really are the dumbest fucking sonnuvabitch I've ever hired."

Gonzalez probably would have fallen over as Nick Fury entered the room if Steve didn't have him pinned to the wall. It was dead silent as Bucky and Nick stared at each other. Bucky rubbed the back of his head. "So… sorry, you know, about the whole… trying to kill you thing," Bucky said awkwardly.

"Sorry we didn't know to get you out of there sooner," Nick responded. "I wish Ellie had told me."

"Ellie's never been one to share any more than is strictly necessary," Bucky acknowledged stiffly.

"How is she?" Nick asked cautiously.

Bucky visibly bristled. "It doesn't look good. She's completely catatonic."

Nick looked upset, turning to Gonzalez so he could vent his rage. "You know, I knew that you're an idiot, Gonzalez, but this is the single stupidest thing that you've ever done. Do you have any idea what you've done with this stunt?"

"I did what I was trained to do," Gonzalez growled. "I used the tools I had available to win."

"Do you realize that you may have just destroyed what was left of SHIELD?" Fury raged. "Do you have any idea who that woman is?"

"My intel tells me that she's a HYDRA weapon," Gonzalez said, "one with the power to hack any piece of technology just by touching it. You're the one who made the mistake of not using her before now. If you had, maybe we could have stopped HYDRA before they killed anyone."

"You grabbed her file from the HYDRA systems didn't you? Did it ever occur to you that those files might be out of date?"

"They were true! We were able to start a description of several files until the Winter Soldier interrupted us. She could have given us what we needed to stop HYDRA."

"And what about her?" Fury asked. "Did you look into who she was before sacrificing her? Did you look at what HYDRA did to her? Did you ever stop and think that you'd be doing the same thing?"

Gonzalez glared. "It's an acceptable loss." Bucky roared forward and hauled Gonzalez upward, growling.

Fury nodded, seemingly unaffected. "That right there is why you'll never be Director. Because there's no such thing as an acceptable loss. It happens, but that by no means means that it's acceptable. Especially when the loss is preventable. Especially when you seem to lack the tact not to say such things about a person when her father, uncle, sisters, and brother are in the room. Who by the way are three master assassins, a super soldier and an Inhuman. You really have no idea what you've done," Fury said. "Ellie's more than the reports say. She's been brokering deals between powered groups and non-powered groups for the last twenty years. Groups that won't let SHIELD within a hundred miles of their borders trust Ellie because she's powered and she doesn't have ties to any government. She doesn't have citizenship to any one country. She's tie-less and for that reason a lot of groups feel they can trust her.

"She does it for free and her only request for payment is that her name stays out of the deal. There's a rumor going around that even Victor von Doom owes her a favor for something she procured for him. Now that you've all but killed her, powered people won't ever trust us again. The Avengers certainly won't. Not after what you did to her."

"As much as I hate to say it," Tony said. "We might not trust SHIELD, but we do trust you, Fury," Tony said. "You might keep secrets but you know which secrets to keep. Legolas and Widow say that you kept Ellie off of SHIELD's radar for the last ten years. The fact that she was never added to the Index or any SHIELD files… that means something to us. I mean, mainly Robocop and Capsicle. And probably McWings, but all of us..."

"She's one of us," Clint said.

"I brought her to you, Nick," Natasha said. "You know she's as close to family as I'll ever get." She turned subtly to those still zip-tied to chairs for their actions. "And you know how far I'll go for family."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony said. "She's everyone's family except for McWings. Even I agreed to jump on the bandwagon, given that she doesn't hug me. I don't hug." Tony grimaced at the thought.

There was a long silence. "Are we going to talk about that kiss that just happened?" Coulson asked, a squeaky edge to his voice.

Skye blushed as she tucked her head into Bucky's shoulder. "We met just before Christmas," Skye said quietly. "We're dating."

Later he would blame the blood loss, but upon hearing this, Coulson fell forward in a dead faint.

Sister


End file.
